Happiness is key to health

Good news: Your boss now has an incentive to make you happy.

According to the 2013 World Happiness Report, edited by economist and Columbia University Professor Jeremy Sachs, happy workers are more productive and cooperative in negotiations.

The report was published yesterday by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions in conjunction with Columbia University's Earth Institute.

South Africa is ranked the 96th happiest country out of the 156 surveyed, just seven places above troubled Zimbabwe and trailing Angola (61), Mauritius (67) and Ghana (86).

The report calls for "government policy to be closely aligned with what really matters to people".

It argues that there is ample scientific evidence to show that happiness is linked to better health, longer life expectancy and more creative workers.

It cites a study of nuns who had similar living conditions and diets but reported different levels of happiness. Happier ones lived about 10 years longer than their colleagues.

According to the authors, happiness should be moderate and not characterised by extreme highs.

The data come from Gallup World polls conducted between 2010 and 2012 in which 1000 people a country were interviewed about their current emotional states of happiness and their overall long-term life satisfaction.

The overall state of wellbeing is measured by six categories: life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, perceptions of social support, generosity, perceptions of corruption and GDP per capita.

Though world happiness has improved overall, it has dropped in the Middle East and North Africa.

It improved "significantly in Latin America, the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa".

The happiest countries were Denmark in first place, followed by Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden and Canada.

The country with the biggest drop in happiness was Egypt.

In sub-Saharan Africa, happiness improved as corruption was seen to decrease slightly while social support structures and GDP per capita seen to improve.

But South Africa was still way down the list, followed by Lebanon in 97th place, Lesotho, Morocco, Swaziland and Somalia.

The authors say the biggest cause of unhappiness worldwide is mental health disorders such as clinical depression and crippling anxiety disorders.

"They are the biggest cause of disability and absenteeism, with huge costs in terms of misery and economic waste."

The report argues that treatment would have little or ultimately no cost, as treated people with mental health disorders would be more productive and save money.