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21st Century Economics: Measuring Happiness Article: https://www.vancouvereconomic.com/blog/vecs_take/21st-century-economics-measuring-happiness/

RELATED LINKS
John Helliwell's Website: https://blogs.ubc.ca/helliwell/
Spring 2022 Economy Report: https://www.vancouvereconomic.com/research/vancouver-economy-report-spring-2022/
Vancouver Economic Transformation Lab: https://www.vancouvereconomic.com/programs/economic-transformation-lab/
The World Happiness Report: https://worldhappiness.report/

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The connection behind measuring happiness and the economy is simple: if the people living, working and connecting in our economy are not happy, can we really say our economy is a good one? Happiness is widely acknowledged as being one of the fundamental needs of all people, and although Vancouver regularly dominates global indices for liveability, our city is seldom represented on global rankings for happiness.

While Vancouver’s absence from these rankings is sometimes due to the lack of data and respondents in studies for those rankings, more could be done to prioritize both tracking and measuring happiness and other indicators related to economic health among the city’s residents.

As part of our “Beyond GDP” work, our senior manager of research James Raymond sat down with Dr. John Helliwell, one of the world’s foremost experts in happiness, to discuss what makes people happy, why we aren’t happier, and how we can act on these insights to shape a happier economy.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
- Social context is crucial to happiness, and measures of trust, benevolence and inclusion are top factors in happiness. For instance, people are made extraordinarily happy knowing that they live in a community or neighbourhood where their wallet is likely to be returned

- The happiness of new arrivals in a community soon ends up matching that community’s level of happiness: levels of happiness are generally stable in local contexts

- People are more benevolent than we believe – the lack of belief in social benevolence curtails both a community's and individual's ability to be happy

-The kind of work we have, the relationships to coworkers, and the relationships we have to our jobs are all hugely influential to our happiness

- Having work that is purposeful, or finding purpose in work, is a key indicator that improves happiness

- If the goal is to create a happier economy, there are numerous existing community and public engagement channels that could be leveraged to improve, celebrate or reinforce the happiness of a community

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