An Empirical Investigation of the World Happiness Report: The Effect of Reliogisity, Suicide Rate and Human Development

The relationship between economic indicators of progress and happiness is complex at best and paradoxical in some instances. Happiness does not keep increasing with the country’s rise in income when viewed over a long period. Empirical literature finds a positive correlation between happiness and religiosity whereas there is a negative correlation between religiosity and income. Suicide rate and happiness are both high in developed economies. This paper is chiefly an empirical investigation of religiosity and suicide rate as a window into a country’s happiness. This paper does not find an association between three levels of religiosity and happiness. Suicide rate is associated with countries at the middle and lower end of the happiness. A substantially higher suicide rate is found for the latter. The result is consistent with literature that finds a paradoxical association between happiness and suicide rate. Literature is far from conclusive on these associations. This work contributes to the empirical research on subjective well-being as an important indication of a country’s progress.