[Qiu_Zhanxuan]

How does Israel and Kuwait rank so high ? Did they surveyed the arab israelis and Palestinians? What about those slave workers in Kuwait ? In both case that's more than half the total population that lives in horrible conditions.

Makes this whole Ranking suspicious

[maratc]

All these studies are self-reported happiness (basically, many people answering the question "How happy do you feel today?"). Israel ranks high because large parts of the population — the religious ones, with not a lot of income but many children and a strong sense of fulfillment — are regularly and steadily self-reporting high levels of happiness.

(This relates to both Jewish and Muslim citizens of Israel.)

Your (or mine, or anyone's) view of their conditions don't have much influence on their everyday feelings.

> Makes this whole Ranking suspicious

There's nothing too suspicious about asking many people in different countries are they feeling happy on this particular day. If anything, what's looking suspicious is the premise that high levels of GDP (for whatever that means) would result in more happiness of the people.

[nf3]

- Israelis have a well-known reality-distortion field as regards their well being. - The Palestinian population, de facto subjects of the Israeli state, are most probably not included.

Disclaimer: I'm an Israeli expat.