I was interested to read recently that the UK had dropped to 23rd place in a global ranking of the world’s happiest countries – its lowest position in nine years after being ranked 20th last year. Finland topped the World Happiness Report for the eighth year in row, followed by Denmark and Iceland. The US fell to its lowest-ever position at 24th.
The report begs the simple question – what makes people happy?
The World Happiness Report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. The report’s authors want us to look beyond traditional indicators of happiness, such as health and wealth, to other factors, particularly ones that bring people together and involve caring and sharing.
“It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected,” says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, the director of the Wellbeing Research Centre and an editor
f the report. “In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again – doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing.”
Museums are already doing a huge amount to improve people’s happiness, which is why the Museums Association recently launched a new health and wellbeing fund – a programme of grant-making, networking and learning dissemination for health and wellbeing programmes in museums, funded by the Julia Rausing Trust.
The findings of this year’s World Happiness Report imply that museums
and galleries are brilliant places to foster happiness. They are great at bringing communities together, and can also help people better understand each other, thereby creating trust.
Many museums are also working hard to attract young people, with social isolation and loneliness among this group one of the factors that the happiness report identifies as a big problem. The report also says that declining happiness and social trust in some countries partly explains the rise of political polarisation.At a time of growing divisions, museums, working with community groups and other partners, are well placed to become places that play a key role in creating a happier society.