Why is Costa Rica the happiest country in Latin America?

The World Happiness Report 2023, released this Monday on the International Day of Happiness, ranks Costa Rica 23rd out of 137 countries.

In Latin America, the country stands out as the happiest for the fourth consecutive year and the third happiest in the continent, after Canada and the United States, ranked 13th and 15th, respectively.

In this year’s edition, Costa Rica fell seven places from last year, when it ranked 16th.

This United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network report places Finland first, as has been the case for the last six years.

According to the authors, the report shows that, despite the health and economic crisis, most populations worldwide remain resilient, with overall average life satisfaction in the period assessed as high as those of the pre-pandemic years.

However, they point out that in many cases, happiness is unevenly distributed within countries, emphasizing “the happiness gap between the top and bottom halves of the population” of a nation.

WHAT MAKES COSTA RICANS THE HAPPIEST?

The result of the report has had mixed opinions among Costa Ricans.

For example, Bruno Gonzales commented on Facebook that “a country that does not spend financial resources on a useless army and, the contrary, invests them in education and environmental care, will always be happy”.

Costa Rican Magdalena Garita shared a similar opinion, saying, “maybe it is because of our history. We have not had an army, and we have not suffered great social or political conflicts or wars”.

On December 1, 1948, José Figueres Ferrer, president of the Founding Board of the Second Republic of Costa Rica, in an emotional and symbolic act in the Bellavista Barracks, abolished the National Army in the country, knocking down one of the walls of the barracks with a few blows.

With this, the keys of the barracks were handed over to a higher educational institution, the recently founded University of Costa Rica (UCR), to establish the current National Museum in the military building as a center for anthropological studies.

Although for the Costa Rican Josué Aguilar, “the reality of Costa Rica is not that of a happy country; on the contrary, inequality, drug trafficking, poverty, violence, lack of opportunities, unemployment, conflict in educational centers have grown. This is not a symptom of a happy country”.

TOP TEN HAPPIEST PLACES IN THE WORLD

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Israel
5. Sweden
6. Sweden
7. Norway
8. Switzerland
9. Luxembourg
10. New Zealand

TOP TEN IN THE AMERICAS

1. Canada (13th in the world)
2. United States (15th in the world)
3. Costa Rica (23rd in the world)
4. Uruguay (28th in the world)
5. Chile (35th in the world)
6. Mexico (36th in the world)
7. Panama (38th in the world)
8. Nicaragua (40 in the world)
9. Guatemala (43 in the world)
10. Brazil (49th in the world)

The United Nations General Assembly decreed in resolution 66/281 of 2012 that March 20 be celebrated as the International Day of Happiness to recognize the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal aspirations of human beings and the importance of their inclusion in government policies.

With information from Bloomberg