Overview on Happiness Report of
South East Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries 2022
Introduction
Happiness is intimately linked to sustainable development, because sustainable development is the term given to the combination of human well-being, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability. As incomes rise from very low levels, human well-being improves. Even small gains in a household’s income can result in a child’s survival, the end of hunger pangs, improved nutrition, better learning opportunities, safe childbirth, and prospects for ongoing improvements and opportunities in schooling, job training, and gainful employment. Happiness can also generate good mental health, so that people can be more productive and positive, sustainable development can increase better.
What really makes people happy? Thus when people are asked about their happiness now or yesterday, the answers are closely correlated with current activities and events in their lives today or yesterday. By contrast, when people are asked how happy they are with their lives these days, their answers match very closely the answers to other similar evaluations of life as a whole. We need to know what causes the levels of happiness and misery. Among the more “external” factors, key determinants of happiness include: income, work, community and governance, and values and religion. Among the more “personal” features, key determinants include: mental health, physical health, family experience, education, and gender and age. For policy-makers the main issues are the environmental factors
affecting happiness, since these are what can be changed.
Description of The Dataset Variable Definitions
In this summary, the author uses the Dataset from World Happiness Report 2022, the following url: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/. It contains information about the happiness score with the factors explained in the range 2012–2022. The dataset contains several variables that used to explore as outlined below:
- Country name : The list of country
- Year : The list of year
- Life ladder : Happiness score, the survey measure release of the Gallup World Poll (GWP) covering years from 2005 to 2021, it is average response to the question of live evaluations with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life. This measure is referred to as life ladder in the research.
- Log GDP per capita : The statistics of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP)
- Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) : Healthy life expectancies at birth are based on the data extracted from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Health Observatory data repository (interpolation and extrapolation are used)
- Freedom to make life choices: The national average of responses to the GWP question “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”
- Social support : Having someone to count on in times of trouble, the national average of the binary responses (either 0 or 1) to the GWP question “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”
- Perceptions of corruption : The measure is the national average of the survey responses to two questions in the GWP: “Is corruption widespread throughout the government or not” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses or not?”
- Positive affect : Defined as the average of three positive affect measures in GWP: laugh, enjoyment and doing interesting things in the Gallup World Poll waves 3–7.
- Negative affect : Defined as the average of three negative affect measures in GWP. They are worry, sadness and anger.
Exploration Objective
The research questions that the author will explore are:
- How is the average happiness score around the world/within regions among SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries?
- What is the top happiest country in SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries?
- How has the trend of happiness scored the last 10 years?
- Which factors are most influential in overall happiness in countries?
Question 1: How is the average happiness score around the world/within regions among SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries?
The first research question looked at how average happiness around the world/within regions among SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries in 2022. We start our exploration of this dataset with geographical map.
Based on the maps, it can be shown that the happiness score average varies in every country. There are more saturated blues, denoting lower happiness scores, meanwhile there is less pink into red saturation indicating higher happiness scores. The lowest value visualized on the map is equal to 4.394 and the highest value is equal to 6.480. Regarding explanation of the value details will be visualized in the second graph.
Question 2: What is the top happiest country in SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries?
Our second research question we wanted to know what is the top happiest country in SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) Countries, therefore the dataset is visualized in a horizontal bar chart to find out and sort the happiness score from the highest to lowest.
For 2022, Singapore has ranked №1 as the happiest country in SouthEast Asian Nation (ASEAN) countries with the highest score 6.480, followed by Philippines with 5.904 at the second rank and Thailand with 5.891 at the third. The next order is Malaysia 5.711, Vietnam 5.485, Indonesia is in a sufficiently low ranking with score 5.240. Laos score is in the bottom three 5.240 and Cambodia become lower with 4.640. Among 9 countries ranked by the report, Myanmar scores the lowest point of 4.394.
Question 3: How has the trend of happiness scored the last 10 years?
In the third explanation, the author will visualize a trend chart for the last 10 years of development of the happiness score. The graph is obtained from the happiness score of each country during 2012–2022.
From the graph above, it can be seen that the graph of the happiness score fluctuates, but for the last 5 years Singapore is ranked at the top with the highest score every year during 2017–2022.
Question 4: Which factors are most influential in overall happiness in countries?
In the following explanation, we will visualize what factors influence the value of happiness. This report does an analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking tangible and intangible factors that could factor in: GDP per capita, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, social support, perceptions of corruption, positive and negative affects.
1) GDP per Capita
Equation: Life Ladder = 0,650036*Log GDP per capita + -0,626041
P-value: < 0,0001
R-Squared: 0,684467
Coef. correlation 0,780124249.
The p-value < 0,0001 is statistically significant then it is explained that log GDP per capita influences the happiness score (life ladder). Coef. correlation measures thestrength of the relations hip between life ladder and Log GDP per capita in the amount of 0,780124 while R-Squared calculation is 0,684467, measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Log GDP per capita, it has a positive correlation. As the log GDP per capita increases, life ladder increases, by adding 1 (one) log gdp unit, it will increase value of the life ladder by 0,650036 times.
2) Healthy Life Expectancy
Equation: Life Ladder = 0,146867*Healthy life expectancy at birth + -4,03326
P-value: < 0,0001
R-Squared: 0,668317
Coef. correlation 0,713753553
The p-value < 0,0001 is statistically significant then it is explained that healthy life expectancy influences the happiness score (life ladder). Coef. correlation measures the strength of the relationship between life ladder and healthy life expectancy in the amount of 0,713754 while R-Squared calculation is 0,668317, measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Healthy Life Expectancy, it has a positive correlation. As the variable of
life expectancy increases, life ladder increases, by adding 1 (one) life expectancy unit, it will increase value of the life ladder by 0,146867 times.
3) Freedom to Make Life Choices
Equation: Life Ladder = -1,37864*Freedom to make life choices + 6,55943
P-value: 0,128228
R-Squared: 0,019176
Coef. correlation 0,531046762
The p-value 0,128228 is not statistically significant then it is explained that freedom to make life choices does not influence the happiness score (life ladder) or no effect is observed. Coef. correlation measures the strength of the relationship between life ladder and healthy life expectancy in the amount of 0,531047 while R-Squared calculation is 0,019176, measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Freedom to Make Life Choices, it has a slightly negative correlation. As the variable of freedom to make life
choices increases, it does not have any effect on value of the life ladder.
4) Social Support
Equation: Life Ladder = 7,90988*Social support + -1,02811
P-value: < 0,0001
R-Squared: 0,548843
Coef. correlation 0,713835695
The p-value < 0,0001 is statistically significant then it is explained that social support influences the happiness score (life ladder). Coef. correlation measures the strength of the relationship between life ladder and social support in the amount of 0,713835695 while R-Squared calculation is 0,548843, measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Social Support, it has a positive correlation. As the variable of social support increases, life ladder increases, by adding 1 (one) social support unit, it will increase value of the life ladder by 7,90988 times.
5) Perceptions of Corruption
Equation: Life Ladder = -1,2142*Perceptions of corruption + 6,24544
P-value: < 0,0001
R-Squared: 0,148631
Coef. correlation -0,429020700.
The p-value < 0,0001 is statistically significant then it is explained that perceptions of corruption influences the happiness score (life ladder). Coef. correlation measures the strength of the relationship between life ladder and social support in the amount of -0,429020 while R-Squared calculation is 0,148631, measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Perceptions of Corruption, it has a slightly negative correlation. As the variable of perceptions of corruption increases, life ladder decreases, by adding 1 (one) social support unit, it will decrease value of the life ladder by 1,2142 times.
6) Positive and Negative Affects
Positive Affects
Equation: Life Ladder = 0,675361*Positive affect + 4,89524
P-value: 0,425784
R-Squared: 0,0055728
Coef. correlation 0,510394966
.
Negaitive Affects
Equation: Life Ladder = -5,21951*Negative affect + 6,70539
P-value: < 0,0001
R-Squared: 0,358063
Coef. correlation -0,317903232
The p-value 0,128228 is not statistically significant then it is explained that positive affects does not influence the happiness score (life ladder) or no effect is observed meanwhile p-value 0,0001 for negative affects is statistically significant then it is explained negative affects influences the happiness score (life ladder). Coef. correlation measures the strength of the relationship between life ladder and positive and negative affects in the amount of 0,510394966 (for positive) and -0,317903232 (for negative) while R-Squared calculation is 0,0055728 (for positive) and 0,358063 (for negative),
measuring the amount of variation in the data that is explained by the model. From the graph scatter plot between Life ladder vs Positive and Negative Affects, as the variable of positive affects increases, it does not have any effect on value of the life ladder, while the variable of negative affects increases, life ladder decreases, by adding 1 (one) negative affects unit, it will decrease value of the life ladder by 5,21951 times, because it
has a negative correlation.
Conclusion and Insight
In conclusion, we were able to gain insight into our research questions through visualizations of the dataset. Singapore is the top happiest country among other ASEAN countries, with the highest happiness score of 6,480. The factors that influence the happiness score in this analysis include: log gdp per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, perceptions of corruption, and negative affect.
The insight gained is that Singapore is one of the most advanced industries in the Southeast Asia region. Singapore’s economic development grows every year. Singapore’s success in building the industrial sector has caused Singapore’s average GDP to rise; Singaporeans are living longer and healthier lives than most people globally. Why is Singapore’s life expectancy so high? because medical advances improve early disease detection and treatment in Singapore; Singapore has public assistance that can help the community, extensive subsidies for healthcare and housing. support to keep singaporeans employable and uplift wages for the lower
income and broad middle. support for retirement needs. social and community assistance for the lower income and vulnerable groups. Based on this presentation, Singapore became the country with the highest happiness score in ASEAN because the well-being of the people is well fulfilled.
