Can We Really Trust the World Happiness Rankings? The Uneasy Comparison Between Japan at 52nd and the Philippines at 56th
Recently, I watched a video by a YouTuber living in the Philippines who was discussing the World Happiness Rankings.
Japan ranked 52nd and the Philippines 56th. There was almost no difference between them.
According to the YouTuber, those rankings felt quite strange compared with the reality of living in the Philippines.
When it comes to the security and convenience of daily life—including healthcare, food hygiene, infrastructure, and public safety—Japan clearly offers more favorable conditions. The YouTuber therefore found it odd that the two countries ranked almost the same in happiness.
I have never lived in the Philippines, so I have no intention of judging what life there is actually like.
But the video made me wonder about something.
What exactly do the “World Happiness Rankings” measure in the first place?
The Happiness Rankings Are Not a Ranking of Livability
The World Happiness Report rankings are based primarily on surveys asking people to evaluate their own lives.
One well-known question is called the Cantril Ladder. Respondents are asked to imagine the best possible life for themselves as a 10 and the worst possible life as a 0, then say where they currently stand.
In other words, the rankings do not calculate a score of 82 for a country by compiling figures such as its number of hospitals, crime rate, and average income.
They ask people, “What score would you give your life?”
Even in a safe and wealthy country, a person’s answer counts as 5 if they say 5. Even under difficult living conditions, their answer counts as 8 if they say 8.
Once those answers are arranged by country and labeled the “World Happiness Rankings,” the result can look like an objective score that includes the quality of the living environment.
A Score of 7 May Mean Something Different in Another Country
There are also cultural differences.
Japanese people tend to be relatively cautious about rating themselves highly. When asked whether everything is perfect, it is not unusual for someone to answer, “Well… maybe a 7,” rather than, “Everything is wonderful! Ten out of ten!”
The YouTuber mentioned earlier explained that people in the Philippines place great importance on connections with family and friends and tend to have a strong sense of enjoying life in the present.
I do not know how widely that description applies to Filipinos as a whole. But if cultures produce different patterns of response, the question remains whether a 7 given by a Japanese person can be compared directly with a 7 given by a Filipino.
You Cannot Ignore the People Who Leave the Philippines to Work Abroad
So let us look at a different figure, separate from the happiness rankings.
Where do people actually choose to work?
In the Philippines, working abroad and sending money home to one’s family is such an established model of life that the term OFW, or Overseas Filipino Worker, is commonly used.
Nurses, caregivers, sailors, construction workers, domestic workers, engineers, and people in many other occupations work outside the country. They leave their families behind to work abroad in order to earn more than they could at home.
Remittances from overseas have grown to an enormous scale and are an important pillar of the Philippine economy.
I think this is a fact that carries considerable weight.
“I Am Happy” and “I Cannot Earn Enough Here” Can Both Be True
This is where the happiness rankings become interesting.
A person can answer a survey by saying, “I am happy,” while simultaneously deciding that “I would be better able to support my family by working abroad.”
There is no contradiction between the two.
A person can be emotionally happy while being economically better off leaving the country. It may be precisely because they care about their family that they leave that family behind to work overseas.
It is quite an ironic arrangement.
At this point, it becomes clear how crude it would be to say, “The Philippines ranks 56th in happiness and Japan ranks 52nd, so life in the two countries must be roughly the same.”
Look at Human Behavior, Not Just Survey Answers
Some Japanese people also work abroad. But leaving the country for several years to earn money in order to support one’s family is not a standard life plan in Japan.
If large numbers of people leave their families behind and go abroad because they can earn dramatically more than in their own country, their decision tells us something about domestic employment and wages.
It is human behavior—not a survey—that is speaking.
Moving abroad means living with a different language and culture. It means being separated from family. It requires obtaining a visa, finding a job, and changing where you live. Yet people still leave their country to work.
That is a far weightier choice than an answer to the question, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate your life?”
You Can Be Happy and Still Be Hungry
The World Happiness Rankings do have value. They are interesting as data showing how highly people in each country evaluate their own lives.
But problems arise when we reinterpret them as a measure of how easy or comfortable it is to live in each country.
Many people from the Philippines work abroad, and their remittances support an important part of the country’s economy. At the same time, the Philippines does not rank far behind Japan in happiness.
These two facts do not contradict each other. Rather, they clearly demonstrate what the happiness rankings measure and what they do not.
The answer “I am happy” and the action “But I am going abroad to work so I can support my family” can exist at the same time.
You can be happy and still be hungry.
Time with your family may bring happiness, but the rent still has to be paid. Children’s school fees still have to be paid. So people move to places where they can earn more.
And when people are hungry, they do not consult the happiness rankings. They head for a country where they can find work.
Perhaps people’s feet are more honest than surveys.