Island tops ‘Happy Planet’ listing

THE tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has topped a new index that measures quality of life against environmental impact, with industrial countries, perhaps unsurprisingly, faring badly.

The Happy Planet index by Britain’s New Economics Foundation rates nations by comparing their consumption of resources, life expectancy and happiness.

The top 10 is dominated by Central American states, while Britain comes 108th, the United States 150th and Zimbabwe last out of the 178 countries compared.

Ireland comes in at 113th, sandwiched between Pakistan and Poland.

The NEF, an independent group that did the index jointly with green campaign group Friends of the Earth, said the report showed high levels of resource consumption do not reliably produce high levels of well-being.

NEF said Central America was the region with the highest average score, combining good life expectancy of 70 years with an ecological footprint below its globally fair share, while island nations scored above average and Switzerland came top in Europe.