Costa Rica Is The Happiest Place On Earth

An environmentally-minded research group out of Britain have determined Costa Rica to be the happiest country on the planet. Maybe next year, Azerbaijan. The group used a highly scientific method - “The Happy People Index” :D - to determine which nation hosted the highest amount of happy citizens. Other factors that the research team took into account were residents’ environmental footprint and average life expectancy. In second place was the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam. 

What irks us about this is, obviously, that if one’s idea of happiness fits a specific lens, motive or agenda (in this case, environmental impact), then the results will obviously be skewed to reflect that. If a different research team was to determine that wealth equated happiness, then a different country would have been more likely to top this list. 

Anyway, despite that, we agree that Costa Rica is a pretty happy place as long as you don’t bring up Nicaragua as a point of discussion. Here’s why:

• They have an awesome motto.

“Pura Vida!” That’s great stuff. It really beats Honduras’ current motto: “Srsly WTF???!!!”

• Imperial.

This beer is NICE. Especially if you find yourself drinking it in a hammock while a giant butterfly lands on a  baby monkey in front of a waterfall. And then eats it.

• Those aforementioned waterfalls.

Waterfalls are nice, an Costa Rica happens to have a lot of them. And, as everyone knows, where there are misty waterfalls, there are unicorns.

• Volcanoes!

Maybe not always so good, but everyone likes at least some element of danger to counteract all the happy.

• Pineapples.

Are delicious! And you can eat them in Costa Rica. They also look funny when they’re growing altogether in a field.

• Heidi and Spencer left. 

So, there you go.

Costa Rica tops list of ‘happiest’ nations [CNN]