全球幸福感高於五年前 北歐最幸福
Scandinavia cleaned up in the latest global rankings of happiness, notching three of the top five spots in the latest United Nations report.
北歐國家在聯合國(United Nations)最新發布的全球幸福感排行榜上遙遙領先，有三個北歐國家進入前五個全球最幸福國家行列。Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden were the first five finishers in the World Happiness Report, a ranking of 156 countries issued by the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The U.S. ranked 17; Togo was the lowest-ranked country, taking 156 place after Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic and Benin.
在這份“全球幸福感報告”(World Happiness Report)中，丹麥、挪威、瑞士、荷蘭和瑞典排在前五名，這份報告由聯合國可持續發展方案聯盟(Sustainable Development Solutions Network)發佈，涵蓋156個國家。美國排在第17名，多哥排名墊底，排在盧旺達、布隆迪、中非共和國和貝寧之後。There weren't significant shifts in the rankings from 2012, the first year the report was issued, said John Helliwell, one of the work's editors, and co-author of one of its chapters. Mr. Helliwell, of the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Denmark held on to the number-one spot, Switzerland edged into the top five and Canada fell out of the group, to sixth place, in the latest report. Mr. Helliwell noted that there often were only slight differences in countries' actual scores. For example, Finland, at 7.369, was in seventh place while Austria was in eighth, with a score of 7.369.
這份報告的編輯以及其中一章的合着者海利維爾(John Helliwell)說，今年的排名與2012年首次發佈這一報告時相比變化不大。海利維爾目前就職於英屬哥倫比亞大學(University of British Columbia)溫哥華經濟學院(Vancouver School of Economics)以及加拿大高級研究所(Canadian Institute for Advanced Research)。在最新報告中，丹麥保持了第一的排名，瑞士擠進前五，加拿大則跌出前五，排在第六名。海利維爾指出，各國實際得分的差距通常很微小。比如芬蘭得分爲7.369，位列第七，而澳大利亞以7.369的得分位列第八。
The rankings are based on individuals' evaluations of their lives, collected in the Gallup World Poll between 2010 and 2012. Participants were asked to evaluate their well-being based on questions such as whether they felt they had social support in times of need, if they were free to make life choices.
這一排名是基於個人對自己生活的評估，蓋洛普世界民意調查(Gallup World Poll)在2010年至2012年期間採集了這些數據。參與者被要求基於一些問題對他們的幸福感進行評估。問題包括他們是否感覺到在需要時能獲得社會支持以及是否能自由做出生活選擇。Analysts contributing to the report studied the poll data, in concert with other measures of happiness or well-being, to tease out patterns and trends. Mental health is cited as one of them main causes of unhappiness; unemployment is up there, too. The financial crisis took a toll on happiness in North America and Western Europe--but apparently not in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the study's measures show quality of life improving in the past five years. All told, the authors note, the world also appears to be 'a slightly happier and more generous place,' in the past five years.
對這份報告做出貢獻的分析師研究了這些民調數據，並且參考了其他衡量幸福感的指標，進而對模式和趨勢進行梳理。心理健康被認爲是感覺不幸福的一個主要原因，失業也是一個因素。金融危機對北美和西歐國家的幸福感產生影響，但顯然沒有對拉丁美洲加勒比地區國家的幸福感造成影響，研究發現，過去五年這兩個地區國家的生活質量有所改善。綜上，作者指出，在過去五年中全球幸福感略微提升，也更加慷慨了。
