Can Peru be a ‘happier’ country?
[Versión en Español aquí]
Beyond our personal vision of happiness, or whether we see it as an end or a means, there are measurements of how happy people feel in each country or city, with the World Happiness Report¹ being a very objective and complete reference.
What is interesting about this report, which is prepared every year by SDSN — an independent group supported by the United Nations — based on information from the Gallup World Poll, is that it crosses the results of the studies with variables from each country, seeking to explain their origin.
This small analysis seeks to use the results of this report to derive which are the main gaps in Peru towards a “happier” country, understanding this term as a higher level of life satisfaction.
The measurements
Thus, we can see, without major surprises, Finland leading the table with 7.8 points, mainly explained by high GDP per capita, strong social support and a good healthy life expectancy.
On the other hand, Peru ranks # 63, with 5.79 points, in which the three same variables as in the Nordic case mainly contribute, but to a lesser degree.
From an intentionally simplistic analysis, and given that “everything measurable can be improved”, we are facing an opportunity to focus efforts on improving those variables in which the country has a greater opportunity for growth. Let’s first take a look at the variables the report uses:
- GDP per capita, based on World Bank statistics.
- Social support, which indicates whether people surveyed have someone to turn to in case of difficulties.
- Healthy life expectancy, based on statistics from the World Health Organization.
- Freedom to make life decisions, as perceived by the people surveyed.
- Generosity, measured by the recent charitable activities of the people surveyed.
- Perceptions of corruption, as perceived by the people surveyed both at the government and business levels.
Opportunities for Peru at first glance
If we compare the measurements of Peru with respect to Finland and the average of the highest and lowest countries in each variable, we can begin to notice the greatest opportunities for improvement that at first glance we have going forward.
We see that the broader opportunities for Peru towards a “happier” country are mainly economic (GDP per capita), related to social support (community and institutions) and in a very notorious way, in the perceptions of corruption, where Peru ranks well below the average of the 10 “least happy” countries in terms of how much of the happiness score is explained by this variable.
The importance of the social environment
In the report we can also find a detailed analysis on the direct and indirect impact of improving the social environment, with up to 5.5 points at stake by reducing risks and increasing social support.
During these studies, it has also been found that social and institutional trust reduce the effects of the risks shown above, and contribute to a reduced disparity in well-being. Furthermore, it has been noted that the effects of a strong social environment in life satisfaction are higher than the ones related to income distribution.
Differences between urban and rural environments
Does this apply the same for cities and the countryside? The report finds many challenges to find global trends since there are particularities in each region, however, some interesting things are concluded:
- In much more developed countries, there is a preference for rural environments, especially when these begin to have better transport and communications infrastructure.
- The opposite happens in less developed countries, including all of Latin America. This is a clear indicator of greater opportunities in the urban environment in these countries, which overshadow its disadvantages, such as the inequality within the city itself, the higher cost of living, and other barriers that immigrants are exposed to.
- We can see that Peru, in particular, is one of the countries with the greatest preference for the urban environment in measurements of quality of life and positive experiences worldwide, much of this possibly explained by historical issues.
Happiness versus development?
On the other hand, it is fair to wonder whether at some point ensuring the happiness of the people could go against the development of the country, or vice versa. The United Nations has defined seventeen Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs), which have to do with education, labor skills, innovation, infrastructure, poverty eradication, gender and social equality, legality, environmental sustainability and health for all. The report looks at how these are associated with the variables that impact happiness or “social well-being” (SWB).
In the following figure we see the result of this experimental analysis, where there is a complete and positive association between both subjects, which suggests that working on development implies a positive impact on happiness:
The only two SDGs that have been noted to cause adverse effects in people are:
- SDG # 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- SDG # 13: Climate Action
As expected, the process of achieving these two objectives has an initial negative impact on production, which can negatively impact well-being while the process lasts. However, there are studies that show that the effect is reduced the more developed the country is, and also when the final results that these SDGs seek are achieved, since these are objectives that do matter to the people in the long term.
This explains why in countries like Peru, the dilemma between productivity and environmental protection is frequent and controversial, since it is easy to present the former as the most urgent, postponing the latter, or worse still, using it as a political benefit.
Environmental quality impact
And since we touched on the subject, the report devotes a whole chapter to the analysis of the impact of environmental quality on happiness. Although there is not enough data yet, things like being close to green or ‘blue’ areas, as well as exposure to warmer temperatures and less pollution, favor happiness measurements, although they do so marginally. May this explain why climate action measures, being so important, do not end up being so popular, and then they are not so present in most political agendas?
What can we learn from the Nordic countries?
Finally, the report tries to find the reasons why the Nordic countries are always leading the first positions in almost all measures of quality of life. First, after debunking some myths around high suicide rates and believing that the size and homogeneity of these countries are the causes, their social welfare policies, the quality of their institutions and social cohesion are analyzed as the main reasons.
In addition, being the GDP per capita one of the main contributors to the total welfare score, these countries are compared with other even richer countries, to find what continues to stand out in the Nordic countries, beyond wealth, finding a virtuous circle of social support, freedom to make decisions and low rates of corruption.
Finally, some exploration is made into the history of these countries, finding, since the 19th century, a very strong investment in massive, free education, aimed at strengthening social cohesion and national identity, which apparently has been the main builder of the virtuous circle fed from the trust in institutions and among citizens, as well as the welfare state. I was personally fascinated by this topic, apparently defined by the term Bildung, something worth exploring further and on which I have found useful literature.
This section concludes, based on the analysis of Nordic exceptionalism, two ideas for countries like Peru, in which, on the contrary, we are still trapped in a vicious circle of mistrust, corruption and informality:
- Raise the quality of institutions, including reducing corruption, increasing citizen participation in government decisions, maintaining freedom of the press, and citizens educated and informed.
- Build a sense of community, trust and social cohesion among citizens, as an indispensable basis for achieving persistent policies of common welfare.
Conclusions
Returning to the original question: Can Peru be a “happier” country? My personal vision rescues, based on this analysis, some necessary points to achieve this, which may sound obvious, but which are worth emphasizing as many times as necessary, in order to ensure they are properly considered by the government and ideally also contribute to them with citizen projects:
- Strengthening of social environments, building through education, culture and technology, a sense of community at the local and country level in search of social equality, in which we already have strong historical challenges related to interculturality. This includes strengthening trust in institutions through improvements in their performance, in collaboration with citizens.
- Socially and geographically distributed investment in education and infrastructure, aimed at raising the capacities of people in various parts of the country to produce goods and services, start businesses and improve their professional contributions. This includes the promotion of STEM careers and what it can bring to Peru, which has historically been more dependent on others in science and technology topics due to barriers that today are lower.
- Reducing corruption, probably the most urgent point, since its existence affects the success of (or completely suppresses) the long-term policies required in everything else. This also implies the promotion of ethical voting, seeking to increase the participation of citizens with values in politics, perhaps what we have more at hand to do better right now (this is where I have personally started to contribute, supporting the development of a tool that helps to vote responsibly)
It should be noted that neither the report (based on data up to 2019) nor this small analysis take into account the current pandemic situation, which significantly impacts all these variables worldwide, but which I estimate does not change the basic priorities that we must resolve as a country.
I will be delving into these issues in future articles, trying to find ways to pursue them from the citizenship. Thank you for reading! and I look forward to your own impressions.
[1] Helliwell, John F., Richard Layard, Jeffrey Sachs, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, eds. 2020. World Happiness Report 2020. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
