Knoema.com - Society http://knoema.de 2022-05-12T13:25:07Z /favicon.png Knoema ist ihre persönliche Wissensdatenbank Time spent on free time activities //knoema.de/hjuojjd/time-spent-on-free-time-activities 2022-05-12T13:25:07Z Alina Buzanakova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1293450
Time spent on free time activities

21 October 2015 - If life seems more rushed than ever, you might be surprised to learn that we actually have more leisure time than we did 40 years ago, and quite a bit more. So why does it feel like we have so much less? It might be because we waste half of all our leisure time watching television. Globally, people devote more than 2.5 hours a day to viewing television programs despite the diversity of leisure options.  How people spend their leisure time has significantly changed and is evident even in the short period from 2003-2015 captured in the visualizations below. Men and women spend no more than one hour a day on sport activities, with men spending significantly more time on sports. Uniformly, people are spending less time reading. And as for the classic carefree afternoon teas or nights out with friends, people are spending slightly less time socializing. Discover more information on how people spend their free time through the source:  Time spent on free time activities, by sex.

Alina Buzanakova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1293450
Did the World Become Safer in 2016? //knoema.de/qtvdkld/did-the-world-become-safer-in-2016 2021-04-06T07:52:42Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Did the World Become Safer in 2016?

News headlines around the world inundate us with stories about terrorism, conflict, social unrest, plane crashes, natural disasters, global economic crises and more, always more. One might even think that 2016 was the worst year ever for humanity. But, was it? At Knoema, we let the data speak for itself. We have collected the most frequently updated and the most up-to-date statistics from reliable sources to take a practical view of the state of the world and how it has changed over the last year. By at least some measures, the world ended 2016 better than it ended 2015, with at least one notable exception.   Pakistan. We do not yet know if the total number of fatalities globally from terrorism decreased during 2016 because the only comprehensive database on terrorism - Global Terrorism Database - has not released 2016 data. What we do know is that the number of people internally displaced globally due to conflicts decreased by nearly 60 percent last year. In 2015, conflict displaced 7 million people globally; in 2016, this figure dropped to 3 million, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.  We also know that the Middle East and North Africa combined account for roughly half of all fatalities from terrorism globally. A review of data from just one country in this region, Pakistan—one of the world’s worst terrorism affected countries—shows reason for hope. Data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal suggests that the number of people killed by terrorists in Pakistan decreased by more than 50 percent in 2016 compared to 2015, shrinking from 3,682 to 1,803 total deaths.   Africa, Asia and Europe. The number of battle-related deaths in Africa and Asia decreased significantly in 2016 compared to the previous year. Data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project—commonly known as ACLED—indicates that the number of fatalities in armed conflicts in Africa continued to decrease in 2016, with total fatalities falling 18 percent from 36,000 to 29,000 deaths. In 2016, there were several violent and deadly terrorist attacks in Europe, including July's Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, which generated extensive news coverage and social responses globally. That said, in 2015, terrorism-related fatalities in Western Europe constituted less than 0.5 percent of the total number of fatalities globally from terrorist attacks.   Police Shootings in the US. Last year, the media spotlight and the US presidential campaign highlighted serious social tensions over police shootings in the US, especially those involving black Americans. Data reveals, however, that the total number of people killed by police in the United States last year decreased slightly from 991 people in 2015 to 963 in 2016.   Plane Crashes Around the World. During 2016, the world experienced several heartbreaking aviation accidents, such as: the crash of the Russian Defense Ministry TU-154 into the Black Sea that killed all 92 passengers on board; the loss of 71 people—including 19 members of a Brazilian soccer team—to the LaMia Flight CP2933 crash in Colombia; and, the Egyptair Flight 804 crash into the Mediterranean Sea that claimed 66 lives. And, yet, stepping away from the headlines, we discover that fatalities from plane crashes decreased last year by 30 percent, from 898 total fatalities to 629, according to the Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives.   Mass Shootings in the US.  Now we arrive at the notable exception: mass shootings in the United States. The number of people killed in this category of violent crime rose by 25 percent last year from 367 in 2015 to 458 in 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Few are likely surprised by this finding. In 2016, the world witnessed the deadly mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, that claimed 50 lives and wounded 53 others; the attack in Piketon, Ohio, which killed eight, and so many more.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Happiness & Unemployment //knoema.de/ezhpngd/happiness-unemployment 2019-08-02T14:27:18Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Happiness & Unemployment

According to the evidence provided by recent empirical studies, unemployed people are, in general, unhappier than employed ones. This evidence, however, concerns only the concept of overall life satisfaction but does not take into account experienced happiness (or experienced utility), which usually implies happiness the day before the survey and consists of satisfaction from different activities (e.g. hobbies, eating, shopping, working etc.). Experienced happiness, though, is more suitable approach, since it gives insight into what makes people happy when they are employed and what makes them unhappy when they are unemployed. Moreover it is more closely related to the idea of utility of work and leisure which the economic theory is based on. The mentioned approach is used in the study of Andreas Knabe (Knabe et al. 2010) conducted in Germany by interviewing 600 employed and unemployed people. Although its results support an idea that unemployed people are in general less satisfied with their lives than employed people, working, among all activities, is perceived by employed people as the least enjoyable activity, while it takes the most of their day time. On the contrary, unemployed people can spend more of their time on leisure activities, which are ranked as more enjoyable by both employed and unemployed people. That is why, when controlling for time-composition effect (how the day time is spent) it appears that unemployed people experience slightly bigger utility than employed people. This, in fact, supports the main assumption behind standard utility functions, namely, that experienced utility is increasing in leisure. Sources: World Happiness Report 2013, April 2014, World Development Indicators (WDI), April 2014, Unemployment and happiness: A new take on an old problem

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Aging Society as an Agent of Economic Change in India //knoema.de/zvqsfog/aging-society-as-an-agent-of-economic-change-in-india 2018-08-31T06:44:30Z Balaji S knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1000220
Aging Society as an Agent of Economic Change in India

People are living longer and, in some parts of the world, healthier lives. This represents one of the crowning achievements of the last century but also a significant challenge. Longer lives must be planned for. Societal aging may affect economic growth and many other issues, including the sustainability of families, the ability of states and communities to provide resources for older citizens, and international relations. Preparing financially for longer lives and finding ways to reduce aging-related disability should become national and global priorities. Experience shows that for nations, as for individuals, it is critical to address problems sooner rather than later. Waiting significantly increases the costs and difficulties of addressing these challenges. To ensure older people's voices are among those making a contribution to defining the post-2015 sustainable development strategic goals Help Age International created the Global Age Watch Index. This index assesses 96 countries worldwide on how good they handle their aging populations to provide them with decent, active and healthy lives and enables policymakers to make necessary steps to improve the well-being of older people. This issue is of high importance because people do not stop developing when they reach the age of sixty and, thereby, have the same need and right to live in an environment that fosters their development just as it does the development of young people. This growing population will increase the need for sustainable, thoughtful delivery of services that match their evolving needs.   Excerpts from the US National Institute of Health publication, Why Population Aging Matters: A Global Perspective.

Balaji S knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1000220
Active Hate Groups in the United States, 2003-2015 //knoema.de/cuonvic/active-hate-groups-in-the-united-states-2003-2015 2018-08-28T07:35:09Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Active Hate Groups in the United States, 2003-2015

In 2015, at least 892 "hate" groups were operating throughout the United States, according to Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This represents a 14 percent increase from the 784 groups recorded a year before. Still, the current figures are lower than the all-time high in 2011 as traditional organised extremism continues to shrink in favor of collective and individual cyber-based activism. The SPLC defines a hate group as an organised movement that has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people based on religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, nationality, and other immutable characteristics. The SPLC monitors the activities of such domestic hate groups as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, black separatist, Christian Identity, white nationalist, neo-Confederate, and general hate (or, "other").  Through the work of the SPLC, disturbing and enlightening trends that underscore the origins and means of continued existence in modern US society emerge:  The oldest US-based hate group is also the largest. The most populous hate group is the Ku Klux Klan, with an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 members among its 190 chapters. Almost one-third of the chapters (52) are registered in the state of Texas. Founded in 1865, the KKK is also the oldest of the American hate groups and has historically targeted black Americans, members of the Jewish and Catholic churches, homosexuals, and immigrants.  Hate groups are increasingly focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons. The composition of the general hate group has significantly changed during the last five years. While the number of anti-immigrant, radical traditional Catholic, and anti-Muslim groups remained steady, the number of the anti-LGBT groups expanded almost twofold. One of the reasons for for the expansion was spreading opposition to same-sex marriage and related issues that have been at the forefront of US politics and legislation. The upcoming US presidential election has also increased the activity of the anti-LGBT movement, as the demonization of the LGBT community has proven to be politically expedient for some candidates. For example, Donald Trump's campaign released a “Free to Believe” broadcast that was organized by the Family Research Council, a group the SPLC categorizes as an anti-LGBT. Neo-Nazi groups are on the decline even as media glare returns. The number of groups espousing racial identity, such as neo-Nazi, racist skinhead and white nationalist decreased steadily during 2015. Among them, the neo-Nazi group saw the most notable decline with 45 of its chapters being shut down last year. US-based neo-Nazi activism has hit recent international media headlines in connection with the murder of British MP Jo Cox. The killer, Thomas Mair, was said to have bought books from a US-based neo-Nazi group. Mair's collection included a guide on how to make a homemade gun.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Does Orientation or Meeting Online Affect Couple Stability? //knoema.de/kbncgbg/does-orientation-or-meeting-online-affect-couple-stability 2018-02-14T13:59:20Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Does Orientation or Meeting Online Affect Couple Stability?

The charts below show a percentage of couples who broke up or still were together 5 years after the survey 'How Couples Meet and Stay Together' first conducted in 2011. Data is shown broken down by partners orientation and whether they met online.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Nuclear Testing: North Korea Breaking Ban //knoema.de/fogdpv/nuclear-testing-north-korea-breaking-ban 2017-10-04T17:00:03Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Nuclear Testing: North Korea Breaking Ban

On September 11, the UN Security Council adopted its 8th sanction resolution against North Korea. The resolution came in response to the country’s nuclear test on September 3 in violation of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty of 1996 (CTBT) banning nuclear explosions regardless of purpose. The test was the sixth violation by North Korea. Previously, North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, and twice in 2016. Each time North Korea has conducted nuclear tests, the UN Security Council has responded by adopting new sanction resolutions against the country. A total of eight sanction resolutions have been adopted, including two additional resolutions after North Korea's successful satellite launches in 2012 and 2016.Except for North Korea, only India and Pakistan have violated the CTBT; each conducted nuclear tests twice in 1998. Although the UN has now imposed a variety of sanctions on North Korea, the sanctions primarily restrict the trade of specific products.Exports. The full list of North Korea exports embargo now includes all weapons, copper, nickel, silver, zinc, lead and lead ore, iron and iron ore, coal, seafood, textile, helicopters, and statutes. Excluding weapons and helicopters, for which no data is available, the covered products constitute about 74 percent of North Korea's exports, with coal and textile the major export products. The UN added these products, except weapons, to the embargo list in 2016 and 2017.Imports. Restrictions on imports include weapons, luxury goods, nuclear and missile dual-use technologies, crude oil and all refined petroleum products, and all condensates and natural gas liquids. Petroleum products are the country's primary imported products, accounting for about 6 percent of the country's total imports. You could say, “they” started, they being the United States and the former Soviet Union, and the world is certainly watching to see how they (and others) will end it now that North Korea increasingly dismisses all overtures for reigning in its military ambitions. In addition to sanctions, the US is seeking to encourage foreign governments, such as Sudan, to limit engagement with and support of Pyongyang.Nuclear testing began in July 1945 when the United States tested its first atomic bomb. The United States detonated 1,032 nuclear explosions from 1945 to 1992; the Soviet Union, 715 during roughly the same time period. A distant third in total detonations is France with 210, followed by China and the UK with 45 detonations each.During the five decades between 1945 and 2006, countries used more than 60 locations to detonate more than 2,000 nuclear devices. For some cases, the testing assists researchers to understand how such weapons act in different conditions and estimate the threat such detonations pose to the public. For others, like North Korea, nuclear testing is more political, a national assertion of military, scientific, and national preeminence. 

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
United States: Time Use Survey //knoema.de/nciwgae/united-states-time-use-survey 2017-09-15T13:02:16Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
United States: Time Use Survey

Every day we have just 24 hours to accomplish it all. And, every day we make hundreds of decisions to parse out those 24 hours. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics in its American Time Use Survey examines just how Americans divvy up their time with input gathered from over 180,000 interviewees aged 15 and older. The survey yields unique insight into"how, where, and with whom Americans spend their time”. Following are a few "how" highlights from the 2016 survey:In 2016, Americans spent an additional 11 minutes on average daily on “relaxation and leisure”, with TV viewing accounting for the largest gain, especially among male respondents. Men seeking jobs also reported spending about 50 minutes more per day job seeking than they did in 2003.American women added the most time to “personal/private activities”, however, only 0.5 percent of surveyed women indicated spending any time on this activity. The top 10 activities for women overall were unchanged between 2003 and 2016, with personal care, sleep, and leisure and sports accounting for the top three activities.A variety of other distinct, gender specific habits emerges from the data. American men reported working roughly 1.5 hours more per day in 2016 than American women and reported more time spent on sports, watching TV, and playing games. In contrast, women reported more time for sleep, personal grooming, and housework.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
World's Happiest Nations //knoema.de/noipuyc/world-s-happiest-nations 2017-04-18T13:43:25Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
World's Happiest Nations

Today in the world there is a strong need for the policies that take into account the things that really matter for people, not just GDP per capita, which as a whole could be named happiness or life satisfaction. There exists rich evidence that these subjective evaluations of life have a significant impact on broad range of life outcomes, including material wealth, and for that reason they should be considered in determining strategic goals and policies. In order to facilitate this process, many initiatives from international organizations arise as an attempt to measure the level of happiness as well as to understand its main determinants. One of such initiatives, the results of which are presented on the dashboard below, is World Happiness Report 2013 (WHR) - the second study conducted by experts from Columbia University's Earth Institute on the basis of international survey by the Gallup World Poll in 160 countries which provides the sample of 1000 respondents per country through the 8-year time horizon. Since the word "happiness" can be interpreted at least in two ways: happiness in the sense of life evaluation (or life satisfaction) and happiness as an emotion, in the WHR there are several measures of happiness: Cantril ladder as a proxy for overall life evaluation (see the detailed descriptions of variables in the text box below), negative and positive affect as a proxies for recent good or bad feelings and happiness (yesterday) as a measure of emotional aspect of happiness. As it can be seen from bubble chart below there is strong positive relation between happiness as an emotion and happiness as life evaluation bringing an idea that they complement each other. However, the former is much more weekly explained by the main determinants of overall life satisfaction: having someone to count on in times of trouble (or social support), freedom to make life choices, perceptions of corruption, donation, generosity, GDP per capita and healthy life expectancy - finding that supports an idea that life evaluations are more closely related to life circumstances than the emotions are. Basing on the trends in the overall life evaluation between 2005-2007 and 2010-2012 it could be said that the world as a whole has become a bit happier during past five years even in spite of negative impact of the world financial crisis that, nevertheless, affected negatively the countries of Western Europe who faced a reduction in life satisfaction. Decline is also noted across the nations of Middle East and North Africa where political and social instability impose its negative affect. At the same time countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub Saharan Africa experienced notable improvement in the quality of life through the period under consideration. Across Europe there are also different cross-currencies, thus, top-5 countries by overall happiness are from northern Europe, they are: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands and Sweden. To conclude, it is worth notice that judgment that happiness is determined mostly by material conditions and consumption is the spirit of modern times, which is not as true as, for example, Aristotle’s virtue, which is unfairly ignored. But it should be understood that, while concept of virtue ethics could be implemented into the strategy to increase happiness in community in practice, it is still very difficult to measure via traditional statistical tools, so the existing studies contribute significantly to the moving towards happiness oriented policy. See also the related dashboards: Quality of life in the EU | Wealth and happiness across the world | Happiness and life expectancy Sources: World Happiness Report 2013, April 2014 | Happy Planet Index | Human Development Report, 1980 - 2012

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Human Developement Index //knoema.de/xewdcof/human-developement-index 2017-04-18T13:43:24Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Human Developement Index

HUMAN DEVELOPEMENT INDEX (HDI) - is a composite index which includes health, education, income, livelihood security and other indicators. In other words, HDI is an indicator showig how successfull are achievenemts in three main fields of human development: healthy life, knowledge and decent standard of living. The chief aim of HDI is to provide nations with comprehensive measure of environment they provide for their people in terms of opportunites for personal fulfilment. The higher the HDI the better the conditions the country created for its citizens to live and work. The main idea of Human Development Index is as follows: people are the real value of any nation, and the richeness of human lifes is what every nation's government should worry about. Non-income HDI is a value of the HDI computed from the life expectancy and education indicators only and is calculated to provide an additional means of cross-country comparison and to order countries by achievements in the nonincome dimensions. Source: Human Development Report, 1980 - 2013

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
How much happiness do pets contribute in your country? //knoema.de/rszpljc/how-much-happiness-do-pets-contribute-in-your-country 2017-04-04T12:34:00Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
How much happiness do pets contribute in your country?

There is much love to be found in relationships between pets and their owners. And, as love influences our lives for the better, so do our pets make us happier.According to one psychological study, pet ownership improves people's happiness in a meaningful way because relationships with pets complement human relationships rather than substituting one for the other. In essence, pets increase the total happiness an owner can possibly experience. Another medical study suggests that people benefit from their pets in terms of improved health.  Even if data suggests that with love comes improved happiness, if other basic components of a person's happiness, such as economic wealth, employment, and health, are lacking, owning a pet will only do so much to increase a person's happiness. Using primary pet ownership data—collected through a pet ownership survey of 27,000 people from 22 countries—paired with information about happiness levels worldwide, we found that while there is a positive dependence between pet ownership and the level of people's happiness, this relationship did not hold across all countries.More than half of the respondents to the pet ownership survey by GfK, a market research company, live with at least one pet, with respondents in Latin America being the most likely to live with a pet, closely followed by Poland, Russia, and the United States. Respondents from Asian countries were least likely to own pets.By comparing this data with the happiness levels derived from the World Happiness Report published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) notable differences emerged between countries. While people from Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Russia, are very likely to have pets, people in these countries are not entirely happy, suggesting that other important components of their well being remain unmet. In contrast, high-income countries of Western Europe, including Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, are happy even without much help from pets because of favorable living conditions. Conclusion? If you can afford a pet, you should live with a pet to increase your chances for greater happiness.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
World Values: Family, Work, Friends, Leisure, Religion and Politics //knoema.de/hxpxvpg/world-values-family-work-friends-leisure-religion-and-politics 2016-09-28T13:47:34Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
World Values: Family, Work, Friends, Leisure, Religion and Politics

Researchers from the Vienna-based Institute for Comparative Survey Research surveyed 86,000 people from 60 countries worldwide during the period from 2010 to 2014 to gain insight into the relative importance of a select set of values. These values were: family, friends, leisure time, politics, religion, and work. Participants of the World Value Survey (WVS) were asked to define the importance of each value, with ranking options of very important, rather important, not very important and not at all important.The combined share of positive responses - very important and rather important - for a single country provides a useful measure to compare the relative importance of specific values among countries worldwide. These results are shown in the visualizations below. Test yourself Following are some of the interesting findings from the most recent survey responses:On average, values rank in the following order from most to least important: family, work, friends, leisure time, religion and politics.For all but five countries surveyed, family was the highest ranked value. Among countries where family was not ranked first, the Netherlands was the only country where respondents ranked friends as the highest priority, while Ghana was the only country where  respondents ranked work above all else. The three remaining countries - the Arabic countries of Algeria, Egypt, and Qatar - religion was ranked most important. In other Middle-Eastern Arabic and Islamic countries, like Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Palestine, and Yemen, religion was ranked second only to family.In sharp contrast to family, politics was nearly universally the least important value among respondents from the 60 countries. Bahrain respondents placed the highest relative importance on politics among all countries, ranking politics above work and leisure but below family, religion, and friends.In three-fourths of the countries surveyed, work ranked more important than leisure. This contradicts economic theory, according to which leisure is a "good" while work is a “bad”. Increased consumption of leisure should increase an individual's level of satisfaction while work should decrease levels of utility. Interstate differences in the importance of work, however, did emerge. Respondents from high-income developed countries - where this economic theory originates - valued leisure more than work. At the same time, respondants from relatively poor countries - like Ghana, where the GDP per capita is 40 times less than that of the US - considered work to be of higher importance than leisure.Respondents from 60 percent of the countries ranked friends as more important than work. But, in only 53 percent of countries did friends outrank religion.Analysis of the WVS survey data also shows that following an increase in standards of living countries tend to move from traditional to secular-rational values and from survival to self-expression values.

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
The Most and Least Tolerant Countries //knoema.de/irloetd/the-most-and-least-tolerant-countries 2016-08-10T13:58:30Z Alina Buzanakova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1293450
The Most and Least Tolerant Countries

The World Values Survey (WVS) examines the changing values of societies and the impact of these changes on social and political life. The WVS is composed of nationally representative surveys conducted in almost 100 countries that represent almost 90 percent of the world’s population. Initiated in 1981, the WVS is the largest non-commercial, cross-national, time series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed. The survey repository includes interviews with almost 400,000 respondents, covering all of the world’s major cultural zones. Among the dozens of questions that World Values asks is one about tolerance for other races. World Values asked respondents in more than 80 countries to identify the kinds of people they would not want as neighbors. Some respondents, picking from a list, chose "people of a different race." The more frequently that people in a given country gave that response, the less racially tolerant the society is rated. Quick Facts:Anglo and Latin countries most tolerant. People in the survey were most likely to embrace a racially diverse neighbor in the United Kingdom and its former colonies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US) and in Latin America.Wide variation across Europe. Immigration and national identity are pervasive, sensitive issues in much of Europe, where the racial make-up is changing.Racial tolerance low in diverse Asian countries. Nations such as the Philippines, where many racial groups often jockey for influence and have complicated histories with one another, showed more skepticism of diversity.Pakistan, remarkably tolerant, an outlier. Although Pakistan has a number of factors that coincide with racial intolerance – sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, and low economic and human development indices – only 15 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race.

Alina Buzanakova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1293450
Happiness and economic well-being //knoema.de/opcciub/happiness-and-economic-well-being 2015-05-01T10:25:30Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Happiness and economic well-being

According to the latest World Happiness Report, issued by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) on Apr 23 2015, the happiest countries in the world are Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark and Norway. Four top countries have average scores between 7.5 and 7.6, and the differences between them are not statistically significant. The rest of the top 10 (in order) are Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Australia, all with average scores above 7.28. Comparing the country rankings in World Happiness Report 2015 with those in World Happiness Report 2013, there is a combination of consistency and change. Nine of the top 10 countries in 2015 were also in the top 10 of 2013. There is more turnover, almost half, among the bottom of the list. Most are in sub-Saharan Africa, with the addition of Afghanistan and a further drop for Syria and Ukraine because of warfare. Greece, Cyprus and Albania also showed a drop in the happiness level due to economic turmoil. Happiness scores data come from the Gallup World Polls. The rankings are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll. This is called the Cantril ladder: it asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. Resulting happiness scores are closely associated with the personal income levels. Generally, people, who live in countries with the larger GDP per capita, tend to be happier. However, the wealth is not only factor that affects happiness. Some countries show significantly higher happiness scores for given per capita GDP (this is typical for Latin America states e.g. Brazil, Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Argentina). Countries that facing worsening economic conditions (such as highly indebted European countries and some in Eastern Europe) and the states with a low level of respect for human rights and high corruption show the opposite tendency (see the bubble chart at the bottom of the page). Source: World Happiness Report 2015

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
The Social Progress Index //knoema.de/jklbfre/the-social-progress-index 2015-02-17T11:06:25Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
The Social Progress Index

   The Social Progress Index is the result of a two-year process guided by a stellar team of experts which includes, among the others, renowned economists Hernando de Soto and Michael Porter and the president of The Rockefeller Foundation Dr. Judith Rodin. The Index synthesizes a huge body of research to identify the dimensions of performance of societies and measure the social progress comprehensively and rigorously.    The Index has been structured around 12 components and 54 distinct indicators consolidated into three dimensions of Social Progress: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. The first dimension, Basic Human Needs, assesses how well a country provides for its people’s essential needs by measuring whether people have enough food and are receiving basic medical care, if they have access to safe drinking water, if they have access to adequate housing with basic utilities, and if they are safe and secure.    Foundations of Wellbeing measures whether a population has access to basic education, ideas and information from both inside and outside their own country, and if they have more than basic healthcare and can live healthy lives. This dimension also measures a country’s protection of air, water, and land, resources critical for current and future wellbeing.    The final dimension, Opportunity, measures the degree to which a country’s population is free of restrictions on its rights and its people are able to make their own personal decisions, and whether prejudices or hostilities within a society prohibit individuals from reaching their potential. This dimension also includes the degree to which advanced education is accessible to all those in a country who wish to further their knowledge and skills.    Together, this interrelated set of factors produce a given level of social progress as an overall index score. You can explore various countries' developments by selecting the desired index component or indicator in the table. Use the map to select the country of interest and see its detailed socioeconomic profile

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Social Protection Index //knoema.de/zeoodgc/social-protection-index 2013-07-09T12:10:22Z Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Social Protection Index

Social Protection Index (SPI), created by Asian Development Bank (ADB), is aimed to assess adequacy of social protection programs which are realized in the countries of Asia and Pacific regions. Social protection programs refer, by definition of ADB, to the "set of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labor markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to protect themselves against hazards and interruption/loss of income". Social Protection Index is a comprehensive quantitative measure of social protection system in the region, which takes into consideration such dimensions of social protection programs as program expenditures, coverage, distribution and impact. It provides policy makers with relevant information on social protection by facilitating cross-country comparisons and  effectiveness assessment of programs so that it can be utilized as a benchmark to improve social protection in the country. Source: Social Protection Index, 2013

Alex Kulikov knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1847910
Wealth and happiness across the world //knoema.de/oadbedc/wealth-and-happiness-across-the-world 2013-03-31T06:35:36Z Anna Volegova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1052610
Wealth and happiness across the world

People think material prosperity predicts life evaluation and positive feeling. The new HPI results show the extent to which 151 countries across the globe produce long, happy and sustainable lives for the people that live in them. The overall index scores rank countries based on their efficiency, how many long and happy lives each produces per unit of environmental output. How do high-income Western countries compare with the countries that top the overall HPI rankings?

Anna Volegova knoema.de://knoema.de/user/1052610