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description: Costa Rica is number one, according to the Happy Planet Index
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# These Maps Show Which Countries Are the Happiest

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by 

[Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/)


## Samantha Grossman


Nov 19, 2014 5:24 PM UTC

by 

[Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/)


## Samantha Grossman


Nov 19, 2014 5:24 PM UTC

If you’re looking for a change of scenery and considering moving to a new country, you may want to consider Costa Rica. According to [the Happy Planet Index](http://www.happyplanetindex.org/) (HPI), it’s the happiest country on Earth, followed by Vietnam, Colombia and Belize.

These maps, created [by MoveHub,](http://www.movehub.com/blog/happiness-map) show the happiness level of each country across the globe. The HPI is calculated using “global data on life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological Footprint.” It’s an “efficiency measure,” ranking countries on “how many long and happy lives they produce per unit of environmental input.”

Check it out:

As you might have noticed, some of the world’s high-income nations have considerably low happiness ratings, and that’s because many of those countries have high ecological footprints. Also, as MoveHub points out, “the data does not take into account internal inequality measures and human rights issues tied to some countries which are high up in the rankings.” So keep that in mind as you browse the maps. Still, though, we do believe that Costa Rica seems [really, really nice](http://undercdn.under30media.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/costaRica08.jpeg).

_Read next:_ [_The U.S. Is No Longer the Most Popular Country in the World_](http://time.com/3583915/germany-us-popular-country/?xid=time%5Freadnext)

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