The Caribbean’s Happiest Island

By: - March 21st, 2016

The Caribbean’s happiest island may also be its most resilient.

The latest edition of the United Nations’ World Happiness Report has been released, and one Caribbean island is at the top: Puerto Rico.

Yes, Puerto Rico: despite its crippling economic crisis, the island was the top-ranked place on the list from the Caribbean.

Puerto Rico was ranked 15th in the world, just ahead of Germany and just behind Costa Rica.

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

The second-highest-ranked place in the Caribbean was Trinidad and Tobago, which came in at 43, followed by Belize at 52.

Jamaica was next at 62nd in the world, followed by the Dominican Republic at 89 and  Haiti at 136. Only larger Caribbean countries seem to have been included and/or polled.

The rankings come from the Gallup World Poll. based on answers to the main “life evaluation” question asked in the poll.

The poll asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the “best possible life for them” being a 10, and the “worst possible life” being a 0.

They are then asked to rate their lives on a scale of 0 to 10.

This year’s update combined the data from 2013-2015.

The first-ever World Happiness report was released in 2012; this is the fourth edition.

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