[jbenjoseph]

Driven especially by having the second most happiest youth. For one, Israel is an advanced country with mostly sunny weather. But the edge in my opinion is military/service culture produces a sense of self-actualization in the youth that is lacking in much of the West. Religion also makes people happy, and Israel is a pretty religious country.

[lucianbr]

Religion also gives people a somewhat higher than average chance of being murdered by people of a different religion. At least, that's how it seems to be in Israel / Palestine and actually that whole area.

I guess some people around there die happy, believing it is for a good cause, so there's no contradiction, at least not from their point of view.

I'd still rather take Norway or New Zealand.

[jbenjoseph]

Israel has amongst the highest life expectancies in the world and without the similar healthcare costs of other countries.

[lucianbr]

Point being that religion is strictly a good thing, even when accounting for being more or less at war with other religious nuts for decades?

Guess if that's what the evidence says...

[maratc]

There's no point being made about what is a "good thing" or a "bad thing", since that depends on the values of the people making the judgment. The point being made here is that having a lot of (religious, family, community) obligations fills one's life with a certain sense of worth, importance, meaning, and fulfillment — and makes them self-report as being happy, when asked by researchers. No judgments about what's good or bad.

[lucianbr]

Well, if it makes me self-report as happy, and makes me live longer (on average), I hardly think it is useful to say "no judgement on what's good or bad". If living long while being happy is not good, I don't know what is.

I am very surprised though that people in what is nearly a perpetual war, being attacked or hated from all sides, are both subjectively happier and objectively longer living than most of the rest of the planet.

Either I have really no clue what happiness is, or we are wrong about the idea that war is bad, at least not in all cases.

[maratc]

Correlation does not imply causation. Moreover, the general trend does not promise a personal trend.

There's correlation between being in relationship and reporting happiness. This can be taken as a proof that being in a relationship makes people happy ("marriage brings happiness" hypothesis). An alternative explanation does a U-turn on this one: people who are "naturally happy" are always smiling, take life easy, and basically make for a better partner. They are easier to marry, and easier to stay with once married. This is "happiness brings marriage" hypothesis. The third explanation would be that these are occurring simultaneously but are not in any causal relationship whatsoever.

Moreover, even people in Finland are more happy on average, this doesn't promise that you would be happier if you move to Finland. Rather, being in a new country with no knowledge of the language and no friends might make you less happy than you are now.

In other words, you shouldn't take this study in any particular direction of "if you want to be happy you should marry someone", nor "you should move to Finland", nor "you should join a religion."

[invalidname]

Non-religious/secular are the largest demographic in Israel by far.

[invalidname]

Nope. Israel is one of the most secular countries around with more than 40% of the population defined as secular.

[maratc]

There's a difference between "Do you believe in [some sort or form of] God?" and "Do you regularly spend a significant part of your day doing what your God expects from you?"

To put that into perspective, imagine a Christian country with 40% of non-believers and 60% of monks (with the monks consistently reporting high levels of happiness). That would strongly remind of Israel. (To be clear, both Jewish and Muslim population is included in the latter.)

[invalidname]

Nope, you have a misconception of the country. Source: am Israeli atheist.

Majority is secular. Of the religious people the majority are relatively tame. There are some extremist religious people e.g. Hasidim but they are a cult of their own (think Amish). They probably wouldn't even take part in a survey.

The reason for happiness is multi-fold:

* It's a 3 year average. Notice that Israel is actually slipping due to last year.

* Economy was generally good until last October

* Army service tends to unify the community

* It's a small country which tends to bring people together through collective fate

I'm not saying that the religious people aren't happier than the median. But I am saying that based on statistics Israel is relatively secular. More so than most western countries.

[maratc]

You’ll be able to enjoy the YouTube lecture by prof. Yuval Harari (as originally recorded) where he addresses the issues of happiness, measuring happiness, and how and why Israeli society ranks so high.

[invalidname]

Not a big fan of his. I think he over simplifies some ideas for mass consumption.

Regardless, this is a self reporting study which is the only way to report happiness. Over the past 3 years prior to October Israel had years of peace which are far more appreciated in a country that has known quite a lot of conflict. I think westerners don't appreciate this as much as we do.

[maratc]

You don't have to be his fan to hear his explanations about the studies and their methodology, it could be very helpful if one wants to understand what makes people report that they are happy.

As the people return from the army feeling they have done something significant to protect their country, and with the public discourse drifting away from the regular "Bibi vs. not Bibi" agenda, I fully expect Israel to report even higher levels of happiness next year.

[jbenjoseph]

Do you have a link to his lecture?

[maratc]

You can start from here https://youtu.be/0Oy3sEatMxw?list=PL084D9BAA7417477C&t=3420

[jbenjoseph]

I disagree as an American who moved here. Many things are closed on Shabbat, including public transport! Nobody is driving on Yom Kippur. There is nothing like that in the world. Also that what in the diaspora we consider religious holidays are national holidays here. Israelis are used to all this and consider it part of their national culture, so maybe religious is not the best word. The Jewish identity has a big national component. Hilonim might not define themselves as religious still possess a profound Jewish identity which can come off as a religious identity to an outside observer.

[invalidname]

Public transport is closed due to the minority religious pressure. But there are still traffic jams due to the fact that non-religious people still go out. You can buy pork and shrimps everywhere.

As a non religious person I love Yom Kippur. It's super fun. We all go out with bikes and have a blast. We respect the religious people and don't drive (also it's dangerous with all the kids out on bikes). It doesn't mean we're religious.

I accept that most feel they have a Jewish identity. But that isn't religion, it's tradition.