Costa Rica - The World’s Happiest Country
Pura vida is their message. Meaning pure life. Costa Rica offers that up and then some. If you’ve never been, there is something truly magical about this country - deeply relaxing, peaceful, joyous and rich with life. The people are gentle, friendly souls and you feel naturally at home.
According to Gimundo:
According to the new “Happy Planet” report from British nonprofit group New Economics Foundation, if you’d like to live a more rewarding life, it might be work trading in your Rolex for a surfboard and heading south. Their comprehensive new report, which compares nations according to their populations’ life expectancies, life satisfaction, and ecological footprint, combining all of the factors to create a “Happy Planet Index” score, ranks the sunny, fun-loving Costa Rica as the number one place in the world to live, followed by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, Vietnam, Colombia, El Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras to round out the top ten.
The results may come as a shock: after all, Cuba’s known for Fidel Castro’s human rights abuses, Colombia’s famous for a violent drug trade, and even Costa Rica, while a vacationer’s paradise, is a relatively poor country, statistically speaking. But what these countries may lack in material wealth, they make up for in happiness.
Standing in stark contrast to the materialistic, independent attitude of the United States and many other rich Western nations, “Latin Americans report being much less concerned with material issues than, for example, they are with their friends and family,” claims the report. “Civil society is very active, from religious groups to workers’ groups to environmental groups.”
I would like more information on Central America if you have it. I hear Nicaragua is the Next Costa Rica….perhaps now is the time to invest.
And yet people from those countries regularly immigrate to the US or Europe, but no one goes the other way around.
Have we checked that this study wasn’t done by Expedia, to make us want to go to these countries (popular tourist destinations, all) and get a piece of that action before coming back home?
“life expectancies, life satisfaction, and ecological footprint”
Honestly, how is that happiness? Sure, life satisfaction is happiness, no argument here. But ecological footprint? In all seriousness (and since this is the internet and thus anonymous), I couldn’t care less what ecological footprint I leave. No, honestly. I don’t care what happens once I’m dead, or when I’m in my 90s. I care about what happens now, and driving a sports car is pretty damn good at making me happy. Also, as goes somewhat hand in hand with the last point, life expectancy doesn’t make me terribly happy. What much is there to do when I’m 110… I’d much rather live life to its fullest right now, not in 70 years. So, again, couldn’t care less. The study quoted is, in my opinion, complete bogus. Just some bloody treehuggers promoting their agenda.
Actually, very few Costa Ricans LEAVE Costa Rica (unlike Nicaragua, Mexico, El Salvador, etc). Being a Canadian who has lived in Costa Rica for almost 8 years, I can tell you first-hand that I am a heck of a lot happier here than living in Canada. No ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, no one cares how much $$ you make and spending time with family and friends is the most important aspect to life. Plus no winter.
And, to address Ramon, a large number of people from North America and Europe DO move to Costa Rica so check your facts first. Huge ex-pat community here, especially retirees, as the cost of living is a lot less (we can afford to have a full-time maid and a gardener), the weather is amazing and Life moves at a slower pace.
When this study came out, no one here was surprised. It’s not a perfect country (nowhere is) but it’s pretty close to Paradise.