Happy Planet Index fails logic test

Stuff reports on the Happy Planet Index on now well nations are doing at achieving long, happy, sustainable lives.

They rank Luxembourg as the 2nd worst country in the world at 139th with Togo at 38th. NZ is at 38th and Algeria at 30th.

The nightmare country of Luxembourg has US$100,000 per capita GDP, a low inequality Gini score and a life expectancy of 82 years.

Togo, which scores higher than Luxembourg, has a life expectancy of 59 years. GDP per capita is US$1,500 and they have greater inequality than Luxembourg.

So how are they both down the bottom? Because Luxembourg has a poorer ecological footprint.

This shows that your ecological footprint is almost the only factor that matters, and makes the overall index of claim to be a happiness index a nonsense.