Anyone who has been to Costa Rica can understand why the people are happy. The natural surroundings are beautiful and well maintained and there is a commitment to peace (the country abolished its armed forces in 1949).

Because of these and other reasons, an op-ed article in the New York Times reports the Dutch sociologists who run the World Database of Happiness lists Costa Rica as the leader in happiness out of 148 nations. On a 10-point scale, ticos earned 8.5, followed by Denmark at 8.3. The report says the U.S. ranked 7th at 7.4, while Togo and Tanzania trail at 2.6.

Apparently a focus on sustainability in preserving its natural landscape and the choice to dissolve the army and invest instead in education has lifted the spirits of the Central American nation’s people. Such heartening prioritizing has allowed the country to score at the top in other happy indicators, such as one that calculates “happy life years” (the U.S. comes in at 19th and Zimbabwe is last) as well as the “happy planet index” operated by the  New Economics Foundation.

According to columnist Nicholas Kristof, “Rising education levels also led the country to preserve its lush environment as an economic asset,” and the country is “an ecological pioneer, introducing a carbon tax in 1997.”

He points out that this commitment to the environment has bolstered rather than threatened the Costa Rican economy, adding that it is one of the few tourist countries seeing migration from the United States. In fact, it has seen such an influx, it has had to take steps to keep its parks and rainforests from feeling the strain of too much impact.

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If you’re looking for happy (and green), skip Disneyland and head straight for Costa Rica. That’s the word according to the New Economic Foundation, a British NGO that just released their latest Happy Planet Index.

The Happy Planet Index is determined by calculating the life expectancy and people’s happiness against their environmental impact in 143 countries that are home to 99 percent of the world’s population.

Costa Rica, a nation without an army, scored best with an average life expectancy of 78.5 years, a very “small ecological footprint” and 85% of the country’s population saying they were happy and satisfied with their lives.

In fact, the Latin American countries topped the list. This region occupied the nine of the top 10 spots (Australia was third). Britain came in at 74th and the United States lagged way behind at 114th. Interestingly, the report said that the United States was actually greener and happier 20 years ago than it is today.

Maybe there’s something to the old saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” after all.

Read the full Happy Planet Index report.

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