Colombia the second happiest place of the world..!

The Beatles told us that money can't buy love but it takes an economist to tell us it can't buy happiness. A new index of well-being shows that the world's wealthiest countries do very badly when it comes to true contentment.

The index attempts to measure how well countries use their resources to deliver longer lives, greater physical well-being and satisfaction.

By contrast the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations, whose leaders gather for their annual summit in St Petersburg this weekend, languish near the bottom of the list. The host, Russia, comes in at No 172 out of 178, followed by the United States at 150 and France and 128. The UK comes in at 108 - just above Laos, but below Libya.

The list appears in a "happy planet index", published by the UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF), that attempts to log the progress of nations based on the amount of resources they use compared to the length and happiness of people's lives. The NEF has taken official figures on life expectancy and multiplied it by an index based on surveys of people's happiness in various countries.

The combined figure for life length and satisfaction is then divided by the country's "ecological footprint" - a measure of the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption.

Vanuatu (number 1), an archipelago of 80 islands in the western Pacific inhabited by fewer than 250,000 people, has a tiny ecological footprint, reasonable longevity and high life satisfaction - perhaps linked to its unspoilt coastlines and unique rainforests.

More surprising are the high ratings for Latin and central American countries, particularly Colombia, which comes second.

Andrew Simms, the NEF's policy director, acknowledges the findings on Colombia will run counter to Western perceptions. "We are trapped in a cliché about Colombia," he said. "It does have drugs and conflict but the vast majority of people won't come into contact with either. Urban life is complex and rich in the way that it is in cities anywhere in the world."

However the report is unlikely to be discussed at the G8 summit where the eight countries ­ with an average position of 114th ­ will discuss how to improve access to the world's energy supplies and stimulate greater access to trade in global resources.

Some data of the contentment around the globe...

Vanuatu: 68.2
Colombia!: 67.2
Costa Rica!: 66.0
Dominica: 64.5
Panama: 63.5
Cuba: 61.9
India: 48.7
Brazil!: 48.6
Germany: 43.8
United Kingdom: 40.3
Canada: 39.8

Check the article out:
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1173235.ece