How To Measure Happiness

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The Indicator from Planet Money How To Measure Happiness How To Measure Happiness Listen · 9:53 9:53

Happiness — it's something that most of us would say we seek in life, and there's plenty of differing opinion about what makes human beings happy: could it be love? Or family and friendships? Maybe it's money!

The latest World Happiness Report offers some clues. It measures a country's happiness in six parts. Luckily for the U.S., one of those factors is Gross Domestic Product, or GDP; the sum of the goods and services a country produces. GDP can be seen as a broad metric for a country's wealth, and the U.S. is top of the list when it comes to GDP rankings. On the World Happiness Report, however, the U.S. is ranked 19 — so what else goes into a country's happiness, and which nations are at the top of the list?

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