While Gross National Happiness has become a political tool around election time, Mr. Ura believes the index has drawn greater attention to social problems. And the results appear to be positive, he said.

In 2015, his staff members released a study that showed 91.2 percent of Bhutanese reporting that they were narrowly, extensively or deeply happy, with a 1.8 percent increase in aggregate happiness between 2010 and 2015.

Those who were educated and lived in urban areas reported higher levels of contentment than their rural counterparts. Men reported feeling happier than women.

Bhutan’s Constitution, which went into effect in 2008 with the transition to democracy, directs the kingdom’s leaders to consult the four pillars of Gross National Happiness — good governance, sustainable socioeconomic development, preservation and promotion of culture, and environmental conservation — when considering legislation.

Born into an agricultural community in central Bhutan, Mr. Ura said his childhood was marked by changes that brought him closer to a world beyond farming. In the 1960s and 1970s, Swiss investors, taken with his district’s alpine terrain, helped develop road and water systems. The introduction of a formal education system in Bhutan gradually upended the mind-set of many villagers, who felt schooling took away from responsibilities at home.

After graduating at the top of his class in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, Mr. Ura was sent to St. Stephen’s College in India, where he at first pursued history. By the time he reached Oxford in 1983, he had begun a longer foray into philosophy, economics and politics.