This question is more hypothetical to everyone but, to give an answer I can say it’s Bhutan. I will tell you why Bhutan is the top of the entire lot.

They measure their level of happiness as much as they measure their economy. The country measure their growth in terms of Gross National Happiness (GNH) unlike other countries which considers Gross Domestic Product.

“How are you?” is the question which Bhutan Government asks while estimating their economy’s growth. Quite interesting right?

This thing will seem relevant to you only if you consider, being with family, friends, society, nature and the entire ecology is more important than being surrounded with technology, goods and services which keeps us far, detached.

Now I will tell you why we have Bhutan as the happiest country in the world.

There are no beggars or homeless people in Bhutan

Wouldn’t it be so nice to hear? Actually the gap between normal people and royalty isn’t that far. Bhutan has never had a rigid class system.

Social and educational opportunities in the country are open to all, and Bhutanese men and women enjoy equal rights in every respect. Indigenous culture is kept alive by wearing traditional clothing.

Almost 80 percentage of Bhutan’s population live in rural areas where agriculture and subsistence farming is practiced.

Those living at higher altitudes breed cattle and yaks. Everyday life is heavily dominated by the seasons and by religion.

The only Carbon Negative County in the world

I think this need a small explanation. Carbon Dioxide is the leading greenhouse gas emission produced by humans, thus contributing most dramatically to worldwide climate change.

Most countries produce far more carbon dioxide than they are able to absorb, unfortunately contributing to the amount of unwanted carbon that makes its way into the atmosphere

Bhutan, however, is an anomaly. Thanks to Bhutan’s massive tree cover, 72% of the country is still forested, the country has become a carbon sink.

Being a carbon sink means that Bhutan absorbs over 6 million tons of carbon annually while only producing 1.5 million tons.

Bhutan don’t kill any animal not even a mosquito

Some people will think this is controversy when they come to know Bhutanese used to have meat. They usually import meat from India for food.

But it’s safe to eat from the tourist standard hotels because they are regulated and standardized by the Tourism council of Bhutan.

However remember local Bhutanese will eat all parts of the animals and may be uncommon to western diets.

Plastic bags are banned for ecological reasons

In April 1999, Bhutan also prohibited plastic bags nationwide. The ban on plastic bags, however, has proven a daunting challenge in implementation and enforcement because of the practicality of lightweight airtight storage and a lack of feasible alternatives.

Anyway that’s a very good initiative to maintain a green ecofriendly earth!

50% of the country is protected as a national park

The protected areas of Bhutan are its national parks, nature preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries. Most of these protected areas were first set aside in the 1960s, originally covering most of the northern and southern regions of Bhutan.

Today, protected areas cover more than 50 percentage of the kingdom, mostly in the northern regions. Protected areas also line most of Bhutan’s international borders with China and India. To maintain at least sixty percent of the land area under forest cover in Bhutan’s constitution.

Celebrate by planting 108,000 trees across the nation

The people of Bhutan celebrate the birth of the king and queen’s first son by planting 108,000 trees across the nation.

Buddhists believe each person is required to overcome 108 defilements in order to achieve enlightenment, which is what inspired the number of trees. What else is needed to make a country green and clean huh?

They don’t care about TV, radio, or the internet

Here in the western world, we put way too much stock into the things we own. We’re happier when we have the latest iPhone or the latest fashion.

That’s not a very good way to think and it can cause us unneeded stress and unhappiness when we can’t afford those things.

In Bhutan, they only let globalization affect them over the last ten years but they have done so in a manner that allows their citizens to balance their material possessions and their spirituality and that just makes them happier. They don’t care if they don’t have the latest iPhone. They’re just happy to be alive.

Let’s face it, those things make us feel terrible about ourselves. On TV, we see beautiful people making dump trucks full of money and that makes us jealous and angry. On the internet there are trolls, a constant influx of bad news, and all sorts of other bad things.

We get obsessed with social media and get upset when we don’t get re-tweets or likes on Facebook. When you don’t have to deal with that nonsense, life is generally better.

Do you have any different opinion ? Let’s discuss in comments.

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