What does gross national happiness measure?

Gross National Happiness (GNH), sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross National Happiness Index is instituted as the goal of the government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18 July 2008.[1]

The advent and concept of "Gross National Happiness" (GNH) germinated in the mind of Bodhisattva Druk Gyelpo, the 4th King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, groomed with the evolution of "Gaki Phuensum" (Peace and Prosperity) and the modernization period of Bhutan during the reign of Druk Gyelpo, the 3rd King of Bhutan, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk.

The term "Gross National Happiness" as conceptualized by the 4th King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 was declared as, "more important than Gross Domestic Product."[2][3] The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing.[4]

In 2011, The UN General Assembly passed resolution 65/309, "Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development", urging member nations to follow the example of Bhutan and measure happiness and well-being and calling happiness a "fundamental human goal."[5]

In 2012, Bhutan's Prime Minister Jigme Thinley and the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon of the United Nations convened the High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm to encourage the spread of Bhutan's GNH philosophy.[6] At the meeting, the first World Happiness Report was issued. Shortly afterward, 20 March was declared to be International Day of Happiness by the UN in 2012 with resolution 66/28.[7]

Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay proclaimed a preference for focusing on more concrete goals instead of promoting GNH when he took office,[8] but subsequently has protected the GNH of his country and promoted the concept internationally.[9] Other Bhutanese officials also promote the spread of GNH at the UN and internationally.[10][11]

GNH is distinguishable from Gross Domestic Product by valuing collective happiness as the goal of governance, by emphasizing harmony with nature and traditional values as expressed in the 9 domains of happiness and 4 pillars of GNH.[12] According to the Bhutanese government, the four pillars of GNH are:[13]

The nine domains of GNH are psychological well-being, health, time use, education, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards.[14][15][16] Each domain is composed of subjective (survey-based) and objective indicators. The domains weigh equally but the indicators within each domain differ by weight.[17]

Several scholars have noted that "the values underlying the individual pillars of GNH are defined as distinctly Buddhist," and "GNH constructs Buddhism as the core of the cultural values of the country (of Bhutan). They provide the foundation upon which the GNH rests."[18] GNH is thus seen as part of the Buddhist Middle Way, where "happiness is accrued from a balanced act rather than from an extreme approach."[19]

The body charged with implementing GNH in Bhutan is the Gross National Happiness Commission.[20] The GNH Commission is composed of the Prime Minister as the Chairperson, Secretaries of each of the ministries of the government, and the Secretary of the GNH Commission.[21] The GNH Commission's tasks include conceiving and implementing the nation's 5-year plan and promulgating policies. The GNH Index is used to measure the happiness and well-being of Bhutan's population. A GNH Policy Screening Tool[22] and a GNH Project Screening Tool is used by the GNH commission to determine whether to pass policies or implement projects.[23] The GNH Screening tools are used by the Bhutanese GNH Commission for anticipating the impact of policy initiatives upon the levels of GNH in Bhutan.[24]

In 2008, the first Bhutanese GNH survey was conducted.[25][26] It was followed by a second one in 2010.[27] The third nationwide survey was conducted in 2015.[28] The GNH survey covers all twenty districts (Dzonkhag) and results are reported for varying demographic factors such as gender, age, abode, and occupation. The first GNH surveys consisted of long questionnaires that polled the citizens about living conditions and religious behavior, including questions about the times a person prayed in a day and other karma indicators. It took several hours to complete one questionnaire. Later rounds of the GNH Index were shortened, but the survey retained the religious behavioral indicators.[29]

The Bhutan GNH Index was developed by the Centre for Bhutan Studies with the help of Oxford University researchers to help measure the progress of Bhutanese society. The Index's function was based on the Alkire & Foster method of 2011.[29][30] After the creation of the GNH Index, the government used the metric to measure national progress and inform policy.[31][32]

The Bhutan GNH Index is considered to measure societal progress similarly to other models such as the OECD Better Life Index of 2011, and SPI Social Progress Index of 2013. One feature distinguishing Bhutan's GNH Index from the other models is that the other models are designed for secular governments and do not include religious behavior measurement components.

The data is used to compare happiness among different groups of citizens,[30] and changes over time.[33]

According to the World Happiness Report 2019, Bhutan is 95th out of 156 countries.[34]

The holistic consideration of multiple factors through the GNH approach has been cited as impacting Bhutan's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]

In Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a shortened version of Bhutan's GNH survey was used by the local government, local foundations and governmental agencies under the leadership of Martha and Michael Pennock to assess the population of Victoria.[36][37]

In the state of São Paulo, Brazil, Susan Andrews,[38] through her organization Future Vision Ecological Park, used a version of Bhutan's GNH at a community level in some cities.[39]

In Seattle, Washington, United States, a version of the GNH Index was used by the Seattle City Council and Sustainable Seattle to assess the happiness and well-being of the Seattle Area population.[40][41][42] Other cities and areas in North America, including Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Creston, British Columbia and the U.S. state of Vermont, also used a version of the GNH Index.[43]

The state of Vermont's Governor declared April 13 (President Jefferson's birthday) "Pursuit of Happiness Day", and became the first state to pass legislation enabling development of alternative indicators and to assist in making policy. The University of Vermont Center for Rural Studies Vermont perform a periodic study of well-being in the state.[44]

At the University of Oregon, United States, a behavioral model of GNH based on the use of positive and negative words in social network status updates was developed by Adam Kramer.[45]

In 2016, Thailand launched its own GNH center.[46] The former king of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, was a close friend of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, and conceived the similar philosophy of sufficiency economy.

In the Philippines, the concept of GNH has been lauded by various personalities, notably Philippine senator and UN Global Champion for Resilience Loren Legarda, and former environment minister Gina Lopez. Bills have been filed in the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives in support of Gross National Happiness in the Philippines. Additionally, Executive Director of Bhutan's GNH Center, Dr. Saamdu Chetri, has been invited by high-level officials in the Philippines for a GNH Forum.[47][48][49]

Many other cities and governments have undertaken efforts to measure happiness and well-being (also termed "Beyond GDP"[50]) since the High Level Meeting in 2012, but have not used versions of Bhutan's GNH index. Among these include the national governments of the United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics[51] and the United Arab Emirates,[52] and cities including Somerville, Massachusetts, United States,[53] and Bristol, United Kingdom.[54] Also a number of companies which are implementing sustainability practices in business that have been inspired by GNH.[55]

GNH has been described by critics as a propaganda tool used by the Bhutanese government to distract from ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses it has committed.[56][57]

The Bhutanese democratic government started from 2008. Before then, the government practiced massive ethnic cleansing of the non-Buddhist population of ethnic Nepalese of Hindu faith in the name of GNH cultural preservation.[58][59] The NGO Human Rights Watch documented the events.[60] According to Human Rights Watch, "Over 100,000 or 1/6 of the population of Bhutan of Nepalese origin and Hindu faith were expelled from the country because they would not integrate with Bhutan's Buddhist culture."[61] The Refugee Council of Australia stated that "it is extraordinary and shocking that a nation can get away with expelling one sixth of its people and somehow keep its international reputation largely intact. The Government of Bhutan should be known not for Gross National Happiness but for Gross National Hypocrisy."[62]

Some researchers state that Bhutan's GNH philosophy "has evolved over the last decade through the contribution of western and local scholars to a version that is more democratic and open. Therefore, probably, the more accurate historical reference is to mention the coining of the GNH phrase as a key event, but not the Bhutan GNH philosophy, because the philosophy as understood by western scholars is different from the philosophy used by the King at the time."[63] Other viewpoints are that GNH is a process of development and learning, rather than an objective norm or absolute end point. Bhutan aspires to enhance the happiness of its people and GNH serves as a measurement tool for realizing that aspiration.[64]

Other criticism focuses on the standard of living in Bhutan. In an article written in 2004 in the Economist magazine, "The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is not in fact an idyll in a fairy tale. It is home to perhaps 900,000 people most of whom live in grinding poverty."[65] Other criticism of GNH cites "increasing levels of political corruption, the rapid spread of diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis, gang violence, abuses against women and ethnic minorities, shortages in food/medicine, and economic woes."[66][67]

Gross National Happiness is a term coined by His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck in the 1970s. The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing.

The phrase ‘gross national happiness’ was first coined by the 4th King of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 when he declared, “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.” The concept implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing.

Since then the idea of Gross National Happiness (GNH) has influenced Bhutan’s economic and social policy, and also captured the imagination of others far beyond its borders. In creating the Gross National Happiness Index, Bhutan sought to create a measurement tool that would be useful for policymaking and create policy incentives for the government, NGOs and businesses of Bhutan to increase GNH.

The GNH Index includes both traditional areas of socio-economic concern such as living standards, health and education and less traditional aspects of culture and psychological wellbeing. It is a holistic reflection of the general wellbeing of the Bhutanese population rather than a subjective psychological ranking of ‘happiness’ alone.

The GNH Index includes nine domains

The GNH Index is decomposable by any demographic characteristic, meaning it can be broken down by population group, for example, to show the composition of GNH among men and among women, or by district, and by dimension, for example to show which group is lacking in education. The indicators and domains aim to emphasise different aspects of wellbeing, and different ways of meeting underlying human needs.

The Government of Bhutan’s Centre for Bhutan Studies revised and released an updated GNH index in 2011. There are 33 indicators in the 9 domains above and the Index seeks to measure the nation’s wellbeing directly by starting with each person’s achievements in each indicator. The GNH index is based on the Alkire-Foster method of multidimensional measurement, which has been adapted for this purpose. It identifies four groups of people – unhappy, narrowly happy, extensively happy, and deeply happy. The analysis explores the happiness people enjoy already, then focuses on how policies can increase happiness and sufficiency among the unhappy and narrowly happy people.

In 2011, the UN unanimously adopted a General Assembly resolution, introduced by Bhutan with support from 68 member states, calling for a “holistic approach to development” aimed at promoting sustainable happiness and wellbeing. This was followed in April 2012 by a UN High-Level Meeting on “Happiness and Wellbeing: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” designed to bring world leaders, experts and civil society and spiritual leaders together to develop a new economic paradigm based on sustainability and wellbeing. This builds on the Government of Bhutan’s pioneering work to develop the GNH Index.

The Gross National Happiness Index is a single number index developed from the 33 indicators categorised under nine domains. The Centre for Bhutan Studies constructed the GNH Index using robust multidimensional methodology known as Alkire-Foster method.

The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars; good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. The four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values.

The nine domains are equally weighted because each domain is considered to be equal in terms of its intrinsic importance as a component of GNH.

The 33 indicators are statistically reliable, are normatively important, and are easily understood by large audiences. Within each domain, two to four indicators were selected that seemed likely to remain informative across time, had high response rates, and were relatively uncorrelated. Within each domain, the objective indicators are given higher weights while the subjective and self-reported indicators are assigned far lighter weights.

The 2011 GNH index identifies four groups of people. For policy purposes it identifies ‘happiness’ as comprising sufficient achievements in 66% of the weighted indicators, whichever domains they come from. This corresponds to the groups who are identified as ‘extensively’ and ‘deeply’ happy.

Full details of the indicators and survey questions can be found on the Gross National Happiness website.

People who have achieved sufficiency in less than 50% are ‘unhappy’, and they comprise 10.4% of the population. A total of 48.7% of people have sufficiency in 50-65% of domains and are called ‘narrowly happy’. A group of 32.6%, called ‘extensively happy’, have achieved sufficiency in 66-76% – in between 6 and 7 domains. And in the last group, 8.3% of people are identified as ‘deeply happy’ because they enjoy sufficiency in 77% or more of weighted indicators – which is the equivalent of 7 or more of the nine domains.

Employing a variant of the Alkire Foster method, the GNH generates three types of results; headcount, intensity and the overall GNH index. Headcount refers to the percentage of Bhutanese people who are happy, while intensity is the average number of domains in which not-yet-happy people are happy.

The Index, the headcount, and intensity are all ‘decomposable’, meaning they can be broken down by population group, for example, to show the composition of GNH among men and among women, or by district, and by dimension, for example to show which group is lacking in education.

In order to have one overall index, the GNH cut off was set at 66% of the variables, which is the middle cutoff used above. People are considered happy when they have sufficiency in 66% of the (weighted) indicators or more – that is, when they were identified as extensively happy or deeply happy.  The GNH Index value for 2010 is 0.737. It shows us that 40.8% of people in Bhutan have achieved such happiness, and the remaining 59% – who are narrowly happy or unhappy – still enjoy sufficiency in 57% (not 66% as required by the index) of the domains on average.

The GNH index supports policy-making within Bhutan. Policy selection tools are used to review the potential effects of proposed policies on GNH and the results of the GNH index will be tracked over time to evaluate interventions. This ‘GNH Policy Lens’ requires that the policy consequences on all relevant dimensions be considered prior to implementation. In addition, project screening tools are to be implemented in nearly twenty project areas, including agriculture, forestry, trade and manufacturing, media and information, youths, as well as projects that focus on each of the nine dimensions. The stated goal is that all government projects and policies work together to maximize GNH.

The GNH measure has been designed to fulfil various criteria which are needed for an official national measure of happiness that is also relevant to national and district policy. It aims to reflect the happiness and general wellbeing of the Bhutanese population more accurately and profoundly than a monetary measure.

A measure of Gross National Happiness might be presumed to comprise a single psychological question on happiness such as “Taking all things together, would you say you are: Very happy, Rather happy, Not very happy, or Not at all happy.” However, this is not the case here. The objectives of Bhutan, and the Buddhist understandings of happiness, are much broader than those that are referred to as ‘happiness’ in the Western literature. Under the title of happiness in GNH comes a range of domains of human wellbeing including traditional areas of social concern such as living standards, health, and education, while some are less traditional, such as time use, psychological well-being, culture, community vitality, and environmental diversity.

DEBORAH AMOS, host:

In another economic story: Every quarter, we get the latest figures for the gross domestic product, or GDP. It's a measure that's been widely used to gauge the economy since World War II. There's a growing movement by economists to consider other factors - for example, happiness. People gathered recently in Burlington, Vermont, to talk about it, and Lisa Napoli has this report.

LISA NAPOLI: Chris Wood came to Vermont 40 years ago as part of the hippie movement. Now, he's helped gather 200 people, old and young, from across the state and from as far away as South Africa and Bangladesh, to help launch a new movement.

Mr. CHRIS WOOD: We're about to drop off a very scary cliff that's never been experienced in this planet, and it's very urgent that things become very different.

NAPOLI: This group hopes to make things different by introducing an idea called Gross National Happiness. The philosophy comes from the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which long ago pledged not to let Gross Domestic Product overshadow its Buddhist ideals. Bhutan's aptly named official secretary of happiness is Karma Tshiteem. He came to Vermont to explain that there's more to GNH than a quaint, catchy slogan.

Mr. KARMA TSHITEEM (Secretary of Happiness, Bhutan): From a government policy-making perspective, we are more focused on creating the right conditions that can lead people to fulfilling and hopefully, happy lives.

NAPOLI: Just how to do that, and how to gauge success, has been keeping Bhutan's leaders busy over the last few years. Karma Tshiteem says they've come up with nine key indicators.

Mr. TSHITEEM: Psychological well-being, community vitality, cultural diversity, time use, good governance, health, education, ecology, and living standards.

NAPOLI: Here in Vermont, the hope was to convince people that considering those indicators is equally as important as measuring GDP. GDP soars when money changes hands, particularly in a crisis. But it doesn't factor in anything without a dollar amount attached, like the time we spend at home with family, or volunteering. Professor Eric Zencey, of Empire State College, said quality of life shouldn't get back-burnered.

Professor ERIC ZENCY (Empire State College): Imagine a set of indicators that included questions like: How many meals a week do you eat with family or friends? Or even: How many times last week did you do something at work that you're proud of? If what we want is improved lives, let's measure that.

NAPOLI: Zencey says Bhutan isn't the only place disenchanted with GDP. He points to a study commissioned by the French president last fall to find alternatives, and to the state of Maryland, which in February adopted an indicator that factors in social well-being along with economic growth.

Dahlia Colman trains youth around the world about the difference between GDP and GNH. She says she knows some people consider happiness to be a goal that's fluffy.

Ms. DAHLIA COLMAN: Maybe that's a mistake. I mean, though it's a subjective emotional state in some senses, there are definitely conditions that contribute to a better sense of well-being - such as low crime, healthy environment, community vitality.

(Soundbite of applause and cheers)

NAPOLI: After a day of training, most participants seemed to consider themselves ambassadors of Gross National Happiness. And like the hippie movement before them, they gathered in a circle to close the day with a gigantic hug.