Happy Life Expectancy - HLE, Better QOL Gauge

HLE, Better QOL Gauge

Nonetheless, the HLE may prove to be a better gauge and social tool in accessing what political and social policies can actually make a nation’s peoples happier in the long run. HLE uses eight ‘nation characteristics’ when calculating the ‘happy life-expectancy.’ These criteria (which are further individuated into more subjective determinants within the larger category) are: affluence, security, freedom, social equality, cultural climate, social climate, modernization, population pressure. In determining HLE scores, Veenhoven multiplied standard-life expectancy by a happiness index correlated from the eight characteristics listed above. Iceland had the highest HLE observed by Veenhoven’s method, while Bulgaria had the lowest. Interestingly the HLE was not found to be related to unemployment, state welfare, or income equality, nor to religiousness and trust in institutions.