Vanuatu is the happiest country on Earth- NEF survey

The tiny South Pacific Island archipelago of Vanuatu is the happiest country on Earth, according to a New Economics Foundation (NEF) survey published on Wednesday measuring people's well-being and their impact on the environment.

However, Island nations performed particularly well in the rankings but the small island state of Vanuatu, which is a collection of 83 islands with a total population of nearly 215,000, topped them all.

"Don't tell too many people, please," said Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online, the republic's online newspaper. "People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little," he said.

"This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It's a place where you don't worry too much," he said, adding that "The only things we fear are cyclones or earthquakes."

The "Happy Planet Index" combines the environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which countries provide long and happy lives. It combines life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint, the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption. It does not take into account economic wealth measurements like Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Andrew Simms, NEF's policy director, said the index "addresses the relative success or failure of countries in giving their citizens a good life while respecting the environmental resource limits on which all our lives depend."

"The report shows that people can live long, happy lives without using more than their fair share of the Earth's resources," the NEF said in a statement.

"It is clear that no single nation listed in the Happy Planet Index has got everything right, but the index does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all while living within our environmental means," said Nic Marks, head of NEF’s Centre for well-being.

Besides Vanuatu, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica and Panama complete the top five in the Happy Planet Index, compiled by the British think-tank NEF.

Zimbabwe came bottom of the 178 countries ranked, below second-worst performer Swaziland, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine.

Italy came out best in 66th place, ahead of Germany (81), Japan (95), Britain (108), Canada (111), France (129), the United States (150) and Russia, in lowly 172nd place.

Selected others are: Philippines 17; Indonesia 23; China 31; Thailand 32; Malaysia 44; India 62; Iceland 64; Netherlands 70; Spain 87; Hong Kong 88; Saudi Arabia 89; Denmark 99; Pakistan 112; Norway 115; Sweden 119; Finland 123; Australia 139; UAE 154; South Africa 156; Kuwait 159; Qatar 166.