By Judy Rickatson
Thinking of relocating to a tropical paradise and living happily ever after? You might want to think again. A report just released by a London based think tank ranks the top 5 countries based on wealth and wellbeing as Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway – all cold climates. How so? Well according to the Legatum Prosperity Index, economic success is part of it, but the highest levels of overall life satisfaction are reported in countries which score best in the areas of health, safety, freedom, trustworthiness in relationships and strong communities. Indeed money only has a significant impact on people’s happiness in the world’s poorest countries.
Eric Weiner, author of “The Geography of Bliss” would agree. After travelling the world as a foreign correspondent and reporting on some of the world’s worst problems, he decided to find out which were the happiest places in the world and why. He agrees that most of the happiest countries are cold and says Italy and France, which we normally associate with “joie de vivre”, both score lower than Switzerland. His theory is “get-along-or-die.” In cold countries people need to work together and co-operate in order to survive, but in the sun-soaked tropics, where your next meal literally falls from the trees, getting along with your neighbour isn’t so essential. He believes that a cold climate promotes a closeness of humanity which is one of the fundamental keys to happiness.
So which countries should we avoid? Well the bottom 5 countries on the Legatum list are Cameroon, Central African Republic, Yemen, Sudan and Zimbabwe – probably not high on most people’s possible destinations anyway. And America? It comes in at number 9. But if you simply MUST have sunshine, then try Australia, which makes the list at a still impressive 6th place.
About the author: Judy Rickatson publishes http://expatriatelife.wordpress.com/ an expatriate resource.
3 comments:
switzerland cold?
what are you smoking?
Living and investing overseas definitely has its advantages over doing so in the United States....now and for the foreseeable future.
The United States economy won't have a meaningful rebound for at least another 5 to 10 years. I'm not talking about the stock market rebounding....the market indices will rebound when layoffs increase or hiring decreases (and profits stay with the company and shareholders rather than getting paid out the employees).
Large scale hiring won't take place until a worldwide realignment of the world financial system is nearly complete. Only then will employment get closer to pre-mortgage meltdown levels.....and by the time this happens there will be more small businesses out of necessity. The former (now lay off victim) employees still have to eat and send the kids to college....but the downside is that these former employees and now new business owners won't want to go back to the "jobs" they once held. They now see the futility of working for someone else and will be fully liberated from the "employee" mindset they once believed in.
It's these new employees who will be the new globetrotters....and will live outside the United States as they accumulate dollars, pounds sterling and euros.
well one doesn't usually move to Switzerland for its warm climate - but I live in Norway and you can say it is cold - I just say we have seasons thanks to the gulf stream :)
Maud
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