Bangladesh ranks eighth in Happy Planet Index 2016

Bangladesh has been ranked eighth greenest and happiest country among 140 nations.

UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF) released its ‘World Happiness Report’ on Friday, where it said Bangladesh has scored 38.4 points.

Costa Rica tops the index with a score of 44.7 points while Chad at the bottom with 12.8 points.   

“The Happy Planet Index measures what matters: sustainable wellbeing for all. It tells us how well nations are doing at achieving long, happy, sustainable lives,” reads the website developed by NEF for the report.

It says that four factors—wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of incomes and ecological footprint—have been considered for calculating the ‘Happy Planet Index.’

The report said that Bangladesh has made ‘sustainable progresses’ in human development in the last 25 years.

Bangladesh was in the top 10 countries worldwide in 2014, employing people in the renewable energy sector, it said.

“Bangladesh’s wellbeing and life expectancy scores are fairly low, yet they are significantly higher than those of countries with similar levels of GDP per capita.”

With a life expectancy rate of 70.8 years, Bangladesh has been ranked 81st among the 140 countries in this category.

But it has been ranked second in the issue of ecological footprint.

“What Bangladesh manages to achieve with this very low environmental impact is remarkable,” the report says.

Wealthy Western nations, however, faired poor in the ranking.

The UK ranked at 34, Germany 49, Japan 58, China 72, Australia 105 and the US 108.

Bangladesh tops the list among South Asian countries with Sri Lanka at 28, Pakistan 36, Nepal 42, India 50, Bhutan 56 and Myanmar 81.

But it’s Bhutan which lists Gross National Happiness as its national goal and prioritises happiness rather than wealth as the benchmark for the country's progress.