Happiness can be found where it grows Negative money is on trees and real leaves grow – and this is not in Scandinavia. Think of the happiest country in the world. Can you think of a place in Scandinavia? A new study finds we may be missing the point Actually They are among the happiest people in the world because they are not usually ranked.

Global happiness rankings World Happiness Report (WHR)Scientists tend to observe a relationship between high levels of life satisfaction and high income. But these studies often fail to distinguish small indigenous and local societies from entire nations. But in some of these communities, money plays a very minor role in daily life and livelihoods.

In fact, a new article shows that happiness isn’t all about money. Instead, it shows that some low-income societies (those dependent on nature rather than money) have extremely high life satisfaction, which may make them the happiest people in the world.

“The often observed strong relationship between income and life satisfaction is not universal and proves that the wealth created by industrialized economies is not fundamentally necessary for people to live happy lives,” said the study’s senior author, Professor Victoria Reyes-Garcia.

Who are the happiest people in the world?

Although a new study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study, which was not conducted by the same research organization as WHR, measured happiness in a similar way. WHR asks participants to consider a scale where the best possible life is 10 and the worst possible life is 0. They then rate their lives on this scale.

For this study, researchers translated the following question into local languages: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how satisfied are you with your life, taking all aspects into account?”.

The team collected answers to this question from 2,966 people from 19 indigenous and local communities around the world. Only 64 percent of households surveyed in these communities were earning cash income. They found that the average score for these 19 communities was 6.8, with the lowest score being 5.1 (equivalent to Georgia or Ivory Coast in the World Happiness Report).

However, four of these communities scored more than 8/10; This, if included in the WHR, will make these small communities the happiest people in the world. This is because in 2023 WHR found that the countries with the highest scores are Finland (7.8), Denmark (7.6) and Iceland (7.5).

According to the authors, the highest rates were recorded in Central and South America. These high numbers, they say, are “despite the fact that many of these societies have a history of marginalization and oppression.”

The researchers say the study’s findings are good news for sustainable development in the face of climate change. This is because research shows that people can achieve high levels of happiness without the need for resource-intensive economic growth.

They encourage future research to examine specific factors that influence happiness in societies where money is not central, such as family and social support, spirituality, and connection to the natural world.