Canada is the fifth happiest country in the world.
That’s according to a World Happiness Report, released earlier this month by the United Nations.
And out of everyone in Canada, people in Quebec are the happiest of all.
Just four countries, all from Europe, beat out Canada. In order, they are Denmark (happiest of all), then Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.
The United Nations held a three-day conference on happiness. The goal of the conference was to get governments to consider their citizens’ happiness when they make new laws and policies.
“Happiness” was judged on five criteria: family, good health, income, sense of freedom and lack of corruption.
In other words, if most people in a country felt close to their family, had good healthcare, made enough money to live well, felt free to do and say what they liked (within reason) without having to worry that they would be sent to jail for it, and had a fair government and police force, they scored well on the Happiness Report.
The report was co-edited by John Helliwell, from the University of British Columbia and Jeffrey Sachs, from Columbia University in the U.S.
They found that in general, people around the world have become “a little happier” over the last 30 years.
The report said that the five least happy countries are Burundi, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Benin and Togo. Togo was found to be the least happy country in the world, at least for now.
Richer countries tend to be happier than very poor countries, according to the report. However, the quality of human relationships is a very important factor in happiness, the report said.
The United States was cited as the 11th happiest country in the world and the United Kingdom took the 18th spot.
There have been other “happiness reports” written by other people and using different criteria to measure happiness. In those reports, countries may place differently. For instance, last year in a happiness poll by Leger Marketing, Canada came in 23rd out of 58 countries.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Do you agree with the criteria the report-writers used to judge the happiest countries (family, health, money, freedom, fairness)? What else do you think they should have included?
Of the criteria that were used, which do you think is the most important one? Explain.
Reading Prompt: Metacognition
Record and rank the three most important facts in today’s article? “How do you figure out what information is important to remember? (OME, Reading: 4.1)
Primary
Identify, initially with some support and direction, what strategies they found
most helpful before, during, and after reading and how they can use these and
other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).
Junior
Identify the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers (OME, Reading: 4.1).
Intermediate
Identify a range of strategies they found helpful before, during, and after reading and explain, in conversation with the teacher and/or peers or in a reader’s notebook, how they can use these and other strategies to improve as readers(OME, Reading: 4.1).
Grammar Feature: Irregular Plurals
To make a noun plural we often just add the letter s. When the word ends with an s, ch, sh, x, or z, we add the letters es. But sometimes, we do neither. These are irregular. Their endings are unpredictable so you using them when you speak is good practice.
Turn the following nouns into plurals. Then use a dictionary to find out if you were right.
ox __________________ octopus _______________
datum _______________ cactus ________________
half _________________ deer __________________
