Where are the world's happiest countries? 世界最快樂的國家在哪裡？
Fans of Denmark must be even happier
than usual: Denmark has retaken the title of "world's happiest country,"
knocking Switzerland into second place.
喜歡丹麥的人現在一定會感到無比的開心：丹麥重新拿回「世界最快樂的國家」的稱號，將瑞士踢下冠軍寶座。
Denmark and Switzerland were closely
followed by Iceland, Norway and Finland, according to the World Happiness Report Update
2016, released Wednesday in Rome by
the Sustainable
Development Solutions Network for the United
Nations.
根據星期三在羅馬由聯合國資助的「永續發展方法網路」（Sustainable
Development Solutions Network，SDSN）所公布的《2016年全球幸福指數報告》指出，緊追在丹麥和瑞士後面的是冰島、挪威和芬蘭。
Denmark won the title three of the four
times the report has been issued, losing to Switzerland only once.
在發佈這個報告的四次中丹麥贏得了三次這個頭銜，僅輸給瑞士一次。
People in Burundi are the least
satisfied with their lives, according to the survey of 156 countries, but
residents of Benin (153rd place), Afghanistan (154), Togo (155) and Syria (156)
aren't doing much better.
根據156個國家的調查，蒲隆地的人民最不滿意他們生活，但是貝南（153名）、阿富汗（154 名）、多哥（155名）和敘利亞（156名）也沒有好到哪裡去。
The United States ranked 13th in
overall happiness, lagging behind Canada (6), the Netherlands (7), New Zealand
(8), Australia (9), Sweden (10), Israel (11) and Austria (12). Germany came in
16th place, while other superpowers -- the United Kingdom (23), Japan (53),
Russia (56) and China (83) -- were markedly lower.
在整體幸福指數上美國排名第13名，排名落在加拿大（第6名）、荷蘭（第7名）、紐西蘭（第8名）、澳洲（第9名）、瑞典（第10名）、以色列（第11名）和奧地利（第12名）之後，德國排名前進到第16名，相較之下其他世界強權—英國（第23名）、日本（第53名）、俄羅斯（第56名）排名就明顯落後許多。
Some countries that saw drops suffered
economic and political turmoil -- including Greece, Italy and Spain -- while
Ukraine's political trouble and violence likely caused a significant drop in
happiness there.
有一些家是受到經濟和政治動亂的影響而導致排名下降，當中包含希臘、義大利和西班牙，而烏克蘭的政治動亂和暴力行動很有可能是造成那裡幸福指數大幅下降的原因。
Measuring
happiness is important衡量幸福很重要
Happiness is a better measure of human
welfare than measuring education, health, poverty, income and good government
separately, the report's editors argue.
報告編輯認為，比起單一衡量教育、健康、貧窮收入和好政府，幸福指數更適合作為人類福祉的指標。
There are at least seven key
ingredients of happiness: People who live in the happiest countries have longer
life expectancies, have more social support, have more freedom to make life
choices, have lower perceptions of corruption, experience more generosity,
experience less inequality of happiness and have a higher gross domestic
product per capita, the report shows.
報告指出，幸福的關鍵要素至少有七個：住在最快樂的國家的人民較為長壽、擁有較多社會支援、擁有更多做出人生抉擇的自由、比較少遇到貪污、可以感受到更多的慷慨、較少體驗到不平等的幸福和擁有較高的人均國內生產總值。
"Measuring self-reported happiness
and achieving well-being should be on every nation's agenda as they begin to
pursue the Sustainable Development Goals," said Jeffrey Sachs, the
report's co-editor and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University,
in a statement.
這份報告的編輯之一，也是哥倫比亞大學地球研究所的Jeffrey Sachs表示：「在追求永恆發展目標的同時，每個國家也應該把衡量人民自身的快樂和追求人民安樂列為議題之中。」
"Indeed the goals themselves
embody the very idea that human well-being should be nurtured through a
holistic approach that combines economic, social and environmental
objectives," Sachs said. "Rather than taking a narrow approach
focused solely on economic growth, we should promote societies that are
prosperous, just, and environmentally sustainable."
Sachs表示：「實際上目標本身包含人類的福祉應該由結合經濟、社會和環境目標的三者的方法共同孕育而成的概念。比起單單追求經濟成長這個狹隘的目標，我們應該讓社會更加繁榮、公正並促進社會的生態平衡。」
Not
just about the money不只是關於錢
Iceland and Ireland both suffered
through banking crises that dramatically affected their economies but didn't
greatly affect their happiness, according to the report. What both countries
have is a high degree of social support, enough to put Iceland in third place
and Ireland in 19th place this year, according to the report.
冰島和愛爾蘭遇到的銀行危機大幅影響到他們的經濟，但是根據報告指出，這並沒有對他們的幸福指數產生太大的影響，另外報告中也提到，兩個國家擁有高度的社會支持讓冰島今年能夠排在第三名而愛爾蘭則排名在第19名。
Strictly focusing on financial
well-being can obscure the larger picture, according to the University of
British Columbia's John Helliwell.
哥倫比亞大學的John Helliwell表示，專注於對於金融這一塊的幸福感可能會模糊整體福祉的方向。
"In Norway, it's quite common for
people to paint each other's houses even though they can all afford to pay to
have their houses painted," said Helliwell, a report co-editor and
co-director of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
報告編輯之一、加拿大高級研究所的負責人之一的 Helliwell表示「在挪威，雖然不是所有的人都能負擔粉刷自己家的錢，但常常能見到人們也粉刷彼此的房子。」
"They go out of their way to help
each other, and it becomes a social event, and those events are enormously
supportive of well-being," Helliwell said. "In the commercialization
of activity -- when people are more likely to buy things than to do them for
themselves and each other -- we lose something along the way."
「他們已經將互相幫助這件事漸漸演變成一個社會風氣，而這個風氣將對人類福祉擁有極大的助益。」
Inequality
of happiness幸福的不平等
It turns out that people are also
happier in countries where there's less inequality of well-being, the report
found. And happiness inequality has increased significantly "in most
countries and regions of the world," said Helliwell, comparing 2012-15
data with 2005-11 data.
研究結果發現較少幸福不平等這樣的情況的國家的人民比較快樂，另外Helliwell表示，比起2012年，去年幸福的不平等程度在大部份的國家和世界地區大幅的增加。
The country of Bhutan, a tiny country
famous for measuring the "Gross National Happiness" of its people,
ranked No. 1 in happiness equality, followed by Comoros and the Netherlands.
South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia had the highest happiness inequality.
不丹，一個小小的國家，以衡量自己國民幸福指數而出名，在幸福的平等程度上排名第一名，接著是科摩洛、荷蘭，南蘇丹和獅子山和賴比瑞亞的幸福不平等程度最高。
A country may have really rich and
really poor people, and the poor people don't have enough money to construct a
good life for themselves, he said. Or people may have money but have no social
support or friends, or live in an area where there's government corruption or
lack of freedom to make their own life choices.
一個國家可能會有非常有錢的人和非常貧窮的人，而貧窮的沒有足夠的錢為他們自己建立一個好的人生，或著是人們或許有錢但沒有社會支持貨朋友，或是住在政府貪污或是缺少讓他們做自己人生抉擇機會的地區。
The
birth of 'Gross National Happiness'「國民幸福指數」的誕生
It's no surprise that Bhutan would come
out on top, despite not being a world economic power: Its Prime Minister
proposed a World Happiness Day to the United Nations in 2011 and launched this
international focus on happiness.
儘管不丹不是世界的經濟強權，不丹在此排名上拔得頭籌也並不讓人感到驚訝：他們的首相在2011年向聯合國提出「國際幸福日」並引起了國際間對幸福議題的關注。
Following in Bhutan's footsteps, the U.N. General Assembly declared
March 20 as World Happiness Day in 2012,
recognizing "happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations
in the lives of human beings around the world."
隨著不丹的腳步，聯合國會員大會在2012年宣布要將三月二十號設為國際幸福日，並將快樂和人類福祉設為權世界的共同目標和志向。
In recent years, other countries have
made happiness a public policy goal of their governments. Bhutan, Ecuador and
the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela have all appointed "Minsters of
Happiness" to focus on the happiness of their people.
近年來，其他國家將幸福作為一個政府的政策目標，不丹、厄瓜多爾和阿拉伯和委內瑞拉都有任命「幸福部長」，將工作內容專注在人民的福祉上。
原文網址：http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/16/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-united-nations/
