"Are you happy?" This simple question is not only a daily greeting in Putonghua but also a yardstick on which global authorities attach importance when formulating policies to better serve their people. Recent international surveys showed that the happiness of people in the Chinese mainland has largely increased in recent years, with one of the survey reports suggesting that Chinese people are among the happiest in the world.
The Global Happiness 2023 Report, released by multinational market research and consulting firm Ipsos ahead of the International Day of Happiness on March 20, showed that Chinese people are the happiest among the 32 countries and regions sampled, with 91 percent of Chinese respondents saying they are generally happy, 12 percent increase from a decade ago.
The 2023 World Happiness Report, an annual publication by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in which Nordic countries typically rank higher than China, ranked the Chinese mainland 64th out of 137 countries and regions this year, 30 places higher compared with 2020.
The surveys, with different questionnaires and ranking methods, all imply that people in the Chinese mainland are generally happier, and even rank as the happiest in certain aspects, observers found.
