World's happiest cities (airports, suburbs, ranked)

[Grenoble_slopes]

Forbes lists are pointless. Even when they use real data, it's used in a way that makes it practically useless.

Originally Posted by HeyHolliday!

I have been to all of those except Rio, Sydney, Bueneos Aires, and Melbourne and can honestly say that Copenhagen, Denmark puts them all to shame. I have never in all my life run into a happier group of people then the Danes.

Psychologists studies have actually come to the same conclusion! On most multinational studies on happiness or life satisfaction, the Danes always rank at or near the top.

[lidolido]

Some people with field-investigation had the conclusion that people from some other cities are happier that those from this list. I think that's because of the twist in third-party observations and the subjective assertions. People from Rio, for example, may not seem to be happier than people from Denmark but when surveyed they simply deliver a stronger index. this is possible. some culture may encourage people to communicate their happy feelings more than others.
just a personal guess. I think all the people are totally happier than east Asian. no doubt. How sad that is.

[Grenoble_slopes]

Originally Posted by lidolido

I think all the people are totally happier than east Asian. no doubt. How sad that is.

On surveys, East Asians generally score moderately. Japanese relatively rate themselves as unhappy though, when compared to other nations of similar wealth. The really unhappy countries, in surveys, are the former USSR Eastern European countries. That and some of the Sub-Saharan African countries that are in really bad shape (hard to be happy if you're starving and had to flee from your home due to war!)

[Thomas R.]

In the case of Asia it's sometimes confusing. I remember some psychologists were confused by how unhappy Japanese averaged in some survey as it didn't mesh with what they observed. I believe it turned out Japanese tend not to like to describe themselves as "very" anything so they were more uncomfortable than most peoples in saying that they were "very happy." That skewed the numbers downward. (I could believe this. Many Japanese, judging from what my sister told me, would likely avoid saying something that makes them sound unusual or different. I think the Japanese weren't the only ones they felt were underreporting their happiness. In some cultures I think saying you're "very happy" might seem slightly immoral as virtue or fulfillment is valued over happiness) I think they tried to find a way to compensate for this when surveying Japanese, but I'm not sure how successfully they managed.

[kerouac2]

I have seen more than one young Parisian wearing a T-shirt with the slogan (in English):

I (heart) nothing. I'm Parisian.

[pigeonhole]

Oh kerouac you are so right.
We have no hearts , but we are very very good at PRETENDING...
(from a Parisian who has heimweh of America The Beautiful!)

[KickAssArmyChick]

Rio the happiest? LMAO.
No comments.

[Geography Freak]

These Forbes surveys get more idiotic by the day. I'm really starting to doubt the intelligence of the rich and mighty if the pay to read that crap.

[It'sAutomatic]

I definitely agree that Rio should be somewhere near the top of the list (in reality, not just perception). Indeed it does defy logic that a city plagued with the problems that Rio has could possess some of the happiest, friendliest people in the world, but everything I've read+heard (outside of Forbes) makes me believe this.

^^^ I agree, and their methods for generating these lists are idiotic.

[Jerriy]

Originally Posted by pigeonhole

But everyone seems to have a love story with Paris, it's ununderstandable!

It's perfectly understandable actually. Just like beautiful girls Paris has a bit of an attitude (being the most beautiful city in the world and all) I take the honest attitudes of Parisians any day over those "wannabe" cities on that list most of which have no more personality than a square paperbag.