This world happiness map has been out since November 2006. I find the idea of mapping happiness to geography to be interesting. I also find it problematic. How can happiness be measured, even for an individual, let alone an entire country!

For example, Canada is shown in its entirety to rate near the top of the happiness scale. Yet native people, who mostly live in the north, suffer terribly from geographical and cultural displacement. They would probably rate themselves near the bottom of the scale.

Mean while Quebec is politically unhappy, always whinging about a distinct society and separation, but the people at an individual level live life to the fullest, more so than in Ontario (again, in my opinion - feel free to disagree privately or in the comments section).

The same is true in Australia, except the natives tend to live in the center of the country. In my opinion, Australians are happier than Canadians, but that could reflect more on me and my own mood - being on holiday in a foreign country vs. living at home.

Then there is the difference between India and Singapore. I once found myself in a slum in India. The conditions were bad, but the people seemed relatively happy. This is entirely subjective on my part, but I’ll go on my observations that the kids were running around and laughing a lot, and they looked pretty healthy too. I was told that alcoholism is rampant in the slum I was in, so there is certainly more to a place than meets the eye.

Now flash forward to the following day, by which time I was in Singapore. Walking past a kindergarten, I saw some very serious children standing around, not running and shrieking as children of that age are want to do. What’s wrong with this picture? In a conversation with a retired local, I learned that even in kindergarten, children are under a lot of pressure to perform. This never lets up: right through high school, university, the job market, their entire lives, Singaporeans are under pressure to perform. Not all of the teenagers survive, although that’s not in the news too much. Still, people’s basic needs are well taken care of in Singapore, unlike in India, where life for most people is an unimaginably hard struggle.

I do think the map correlates fairly well with how hard it is to travel in a country. For example, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia are very easy to travel in (speaking from personal experience) - and also rate near the top of the happiness scale. India, which rates low, is much harder to travel in. I have heard that Pakistan is harder still. But what about China? From the stories I’ve heard, it is harder to travel in than India.

So here is a project: the World Travel Difficulty map! Almost negatively correlated is the World Travel Interesting Destinations map. If you want to rate some countries by travel ease or difficulty, leave your thoughts as a comment.

The World Happiness Map was produced with data from the new economics foundation. To find out more about their well-being project, visit their website.