Gross National Happiness

The idea that the success of a nation is normally viewed solely in terms of the Gross Domestic Product has always struck me as strange. After all, don’t things like; divorce, toxic waste, natural disaster, war and other unsavory events contribute positively to the GDP?  Surely there are more comprehensive ways to take stock of how we are doing as a nation.

Last week while in Turkey at the OECD hosted “World Forum - Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies” I had the honor and rare opportunity to meet Jigmi Y. Thinley, Minister of Home and Cultural Affairs of Bhutan, who has been tasked to redefine the meaning of progress for his country.

In the 70s, the King of Bhutan developed an indicator he coined “Gross National Happiness,” which aims to measure well-being and quality of life in terms of happiness rather than income. It is a novel idea, and of course not without criticism. Defining “happiness” is subjective and no definition could mean happiness to everyone all the time. Nonetheless, it is an interesting first step to consider the happiness of citizens as an important component to determining the health of a nation, regardless of how difficult it is to measure.

One of the outcomes of the World Forum was the Istanbul Declaration, where "participants agreed on the need for national statistical offices, academics and public and private bodies to work with civil society on new approaches going beyond conventional economic indicators such gross domestic product (GDP)." There have been posts about the declaration on TechCrunch and O'Reilly Radar as well.

Swivel is interested in data of all sorts. If you have ideas for how you might like to see the progress of society measured, we’d love to hear your ideas - and of course see the data!