調查：全球幸福感普遍增強

People in Most countries around the world are happier these days, according to new data released Monday by World Values Survey (WVS) based at University of Michigan (UM).

Data from representative national surveys conducted from 1981 to 2007 show the happiness index rose in an overwhelming majority of nations studied, according to WVS.

The 2007 wave of the surveys provides a ranking of 97 nations containing 90 percent of the world's population. The results indicate that Denmark is the happiest nation in the world and Zimbabwe the unhappiest. The United States ranks 16th on the list, immediately after New Zealand.

During the past 26 years, WVS have asked more than 350,000 people how happy they are, using the same two questions.

"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?" And, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"

Combining responses to these two questions, researchers constructed an index of subjective well-being that reflects both happiness and general life satisfaction.

In the 52 countries for which a substantial time series is available (covering 17 years on average), this index rose in 40 countries and fell in only 12. The average percentage of people who said they were "very happy" increased by almost seven points.

"It's a surprising finding," said UM political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who leads the surveys. "It's widely believed that it's almost impossible to raise an entire country's happiness level."

美國密歇根大學“全球價值調查”（WVS）組於本週一發佈的最新調查數據顯示，近年來，全世界大部分國家人們的幸福感普遍增強。

“全球價值調查”稱，從1981年到2007年間所做的全國抽樣調查的數據顯示，絕大多數受調查國家的幸福指數都有所上升。

2007年的調查對佔全球總人口90%的97個國家進行了一次大排名。結果顯示，丹麥是全世界最幸福的國家，津巴布韋則是最不幸福的國家。美國緊跟新西蘭之後，排在第16位。

在過去26年中，“全球價值調查”主要根據相同的兩個問題對超過35萬人的幸福程度進行了調查。

這兩個問題是：“綜合考慮各種因素，你如何評價自己的幸福度？很幸福、較幸福、不是很幸福、還是一點也不幸福？”以及“綜合考慮各種因素，你如何評價自己在過去一段時間內的總體生活滿意度？”

研究人員結合受訪者對上述兩大問題的回答，構建出了一個反映幸福感和總體生活滿意度的主觀幸福指數。

在52 個有長期相關數據記錄的國家（平均17年）中，40個國家的幸福指數都有所上升，只有12個國家下降。而覺得自己“非常幸福”的人羣平均比例上升了近7個百分點。

該調查負責人、密歇根大學政治科學家羅納德•因格哈特說：“這是一個驚人的發現。過去大家普遍認爲，要提高整個國家的幸福水平幾乎是不可能的。”