How much does it take to make an American happy? 

Too much … according to the Happy Planet Index study measuring how effectively the world’s finite resources are being consumed in comparison to their happiness in 178 countries around the world. The study was conducted by London-based New Economics Foundation.

How effectively do countries convert their environmental resources into happiness? The basic formula computes life satisfaction (happiness) and life expectancy (how many years you live) and divides this total figure by the ecological footprint. The answer is your Happy Planet Index.

No country scored near the top in all 3 categories - happiness, life expectancy and ecological footprint.

On a scale of 0 to 100, the highest score was 68.2 by the Pacific island of Vanuatu. Vanuatu’s lowest factor was a moderate level of life expectancy at 69 years.

The lowest score was Zimbabwe in Africa with 16.6

The USA ranked 150 out of 178, and the countries most similar to the USA were Moldova, Burkina Faso, Lithuania, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

The USA ranked very high in life expectancy and happiness, but was among the highest in the world in terms of consumption of environmental resources, or ecological footprint. The United Arab Emirates was the only country that ranked statistically higher than the USA in the ecological footprint category (Kuwait and Qatar matched the USA).

Germany and the USA were very similar in life expectancy and life satisfaction, but Germany’s ecological footprint was about half of the USA. So Germany was ranked 81, compared to the USA at 150. You might conclude Germany was twice as efficient with natural resources in generating the same amount of happiness.

Island nations generally scored well all over the world … perhaps being more aware of their environmental limits. The top 5 ratings in Africa were all island nations. Malta was the highest rated in the Western world.

You can also compute your own Happy Planet Index on their website.

Below are some of the ratings for the 178 countries in the survey (ranking from best to worst).

1. Vanuatu 68.2
2. Colombia 67.2
3. Costa Rica 66.0
4. Dominica 64.5
5. Panama 63.5
6. Cuba 61.9

31. China 56.0
38. Mexico 54.4

62. India 48.7
66. Italy 48.3
67. Iran 47.2

81. Germany 43.8
89. Saudi Arabia 42.7
95. Japan 41.7

108. United Kingdom 40.3
111. Canada 39.8
129. France 36.4
139. Australia 34.1

147. Moldova 31.1
148. Burkina Faso 30.1
149. Lithuania 29.3
150. U.S.A. 28.8
151. Cote d’Ivoire 28.8
152. Rwanda 28.3
153. Sierra Leone 28.2

172. Russian Federation 22.8
173. Estonia 22.7
174. Ukraine 22.2
175. Democratic Republic of the Congo 20.7
176. Burundi 19.0
177. Swaziland 18.4
178. Zimbabwe 16.6

The New Economics Foundation, which conducts this survey, makes recommendations on each component of the Happy Planet

Index and promotes solutions to governments, individuals, organizations, businesses and academia around the world.