by Gregorio G. Deligero
While women in low-income families are happiest with their families, poor men are happiest with their sex life.
This is among the initial findings of Philippine Happiness Index (PHI) now being conducted by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).
NSCB secretary-general Romulo A. Virola said the PHI is an “ongoing initiative raging in the international community” that measures people’s well-being — as an alternative, or complementary to macroeconomic aggregates like the Gross Domestic Product.
He said the initiative, particularly on measuring happiness, is acknowledged to have started in Bhutan, but many countries including France and South Korea, have since followed suit.
He added that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is also very active in promoting the initiative through its ongoing project on Measuring Progress of Societies.
The NSCB developed the PHI in 2007 and has since continued to conduct the survey. It asks for the important sources of happiness, and asks how happy people are in each of these sources of happiness.
“We have tried our Happiness framework with many nonrandom groups,” Virola said.
From the NSCB’s pilot studies the following are the initial findings on what makes Filipinos happy:
Women and men both find family, health, religion and/or spiritual work, and work as the most important sources of their happiness;
Both women and men find participation in cultural activities, community and volunteer work, leisure and sports, and technological know-how as the least important sources of happiness;
The biggest disparity on the important sources of happiness, is on sex life: men find it 10th least important but would you believe, women find it second least important?
In terms of actual levels of happiness, overall, women are not as happy as men. Why? Both women and men are happiest in education, love life, and friends. and both are most unhappy with politics, environment, government, and peace and security; and
Among the Low-income group: Women are happier than men. And while poor women are happiest with their family, poor men are happiest with their sex life.
