FIJI has again polled highly on the Global Happiness Barometer, beating 66 other countries to be listed as the second happiest country in the world for 2015.
The survey was conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research (WIN) and took into account the views and beliefs of 66,040 people from 68 countries across the globe, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Eighty-six per cent of Fijians said they were happy while just 4 per cent said they were unhappy giving the country a Net Happiness rating of 82 per cent.
Colombia was the happiest country in the world with a Net Happiness rating of 85 per cent.
Fiji also looked positive in the Economic Optimism Index and the Hope Index appearing in the top 10 for both.
According to the results in the Hope Index for Fiji, 70 per cent of Fijians think 2016 will be better than 2015, 9 per cent think it will be worse, 16 per cent say it will be the same while 5 per cent are unsure.
In terms of economic optimism 52 per cent think 2016 will be a year of economic prosperity, 13 per cent think it will be a year of economic difficulty and 31 per cent say it will be unchanged (the same as 2015) while 4 per cent are unsure.
The survey was conducted by WIN’s member in the region Tebutt Reasearch and principal Caz Tebbutt said the reults were positive for Fiji.
“Fiji is a consistent performer on the happiness index, and when you combine this with the results on the hope index and the economic optimism index, it would be fair to say that confidence is strong looking to 2016,” she said.
President of WIN Jean-Marc Leger said though 2015 had been a tumultuous year for many across the globe, the world remained largely a happy place.
“Forty five per cent of the world is optimistic regarding the economic outlook for 2016, up by 3 per cent compared to last year,” he said.
In each country a representative sample of about 1000 men and women over the age of 18 were interviewed either face to face, via telephone or online.
The field work was conducted during September 2015-December 2015 and Fiji’s field work was completed in November 2015.
Fiji was ranked as the happiest country in the world last year.
