British people are less satisfied with life than many in poorer countries and use too many of the earth's resources, according to a poll that ranks Britain 74th in the world below Georgia and Burma.
Rather than measure Gross Domestic Product or GDP, the Happy Planet Index or HPI measures life expectancy, happiness and the environmental impact of different nations.
The top ten countries are not the richest nations but middle income countries in Latin America, Asia or the Carribbean where there is a high level of life satisfaction and low carbon footprint.
Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country on the planet, according to the rankings developed by think tank the New Economics Foundation, followed by the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
The UK comes in at 74 out of 143 countries behind Georgia at 72. The highest ranking country in the EU was the Netherlands at 43 followed by France at 71 and Germany at 51.
The United States, was ranked at 114, Canada at 89 and Australia at 102. Zimbabwe and other poor African nations, where life expectancy and happiness is low, came bottom of the table.
Levels of life satisfaction, calculated from a worldwide poll, were not necessarily high in rich countries where violence and inequality continue to be a problem.
In the UK the low ranking was largely due to social problems and the high carbon footprint of most of the population.
If everyone in the world wanted to live as people do in the UK, it would require the resources of more than three earths.
Nick Marks, who devised the rankings, said that there are still high levels of inequality in the UK as well as community breakdown and unhealthy lifestyles.
"There are a lot of people who are unhappy particularly at the lower income end of the spectrum but it is not only financial inequality, it is the longer working week, a lack of social cohesion through a sense of belonginess to the community or the geographic area, indebtedness, low levels of volunteering and more passive lifestyles," he said.
He urged politicians to pay more attention to life satisfaction over GDP.
"The big message of these rankings is that we have to produce a system that makes people happier without costing the earth," he said.
最新調查表明，與很多貧窮國傢的居民相比，英國人對生活更加不滿，消耗的地毬資源也過多。英國倖福指數在全毬排名第74位，落後於格魯吉亞和緬甸。
“全毬倖福指數”對各國的居民平均壽命、倖福感、以及對環境的影響進行衡量，而不是國內生產總值。
排在榜單前10位的國傢不是世界上最富裕的國傢，日文翻譯社，而是拉丁美洲、亞洲、或者加勒比海地區的中等收入國傢。在這些國傢，人們對生活的滿意程度非常高，而人均“碳足跡”則很低。
根据此項排名，哥斯達黎加是全毬綠化率和倖福指數最高的國傢，多米尼加共和國和牙買加分列其後。該調查由智囊機搆新經濟基金會發起。
在參與調查的143個國傢中，英國排名第74位，位列排名72位的格魯吉亞之後，日語翻譯。荷蘭排名第43，位列歐盟國傢之首，其後是德國（排名第51）和法國（排名第71）。
美國、加拿大、澳大利亞分別排在第114位、89位和102位。津巴佈韋和其它一些貧窮的非洲國傢排名墊底。在這些國傢中，人均壽命很短，人們的倖福指數也很低。
根据這項全毬調查，在暴力和不平等問題仍未解決的富裕國傢中，居民對生活的滿意程度不一定高。
英國排名靠後主要掃咎於其社會問題，以及大多數人口的人均“碳足跡”較高。
如果人們都想要像英國人那樣生活，那麼我們需要不止三個地毬來提供資源。
該排行榜設計者尼克8226; 馬克斯稱，英國社會的不平等程度仍然較高，社會出現分裂，人們的生活方式也不健康。
他說：“有很多人感覺不倖福，特別是低收入群體，但這並不只因為貧富不均，還有工作時間更長，缺乏對社會或地區的掃屬感而導緻欠缺社會凝聚力，欠債，志願服務意識較低，以及生活方式更加消極等等。”
他敦促政界人士更多關注人們的倖福感，而不是國內生產總值。
他說：“這項排名透露出一條重要信息，就是我們要找到一種可以在不消耗地毬資源的前提下，使人們更倖福的方式。”
Vocabulary:
carbon footprint: 碳足跡，指個人能源消耗量和汙染排放量
think tank：智庫，智囊機搆
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