Happy Planet Index

The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.

[1] Furthermore, it is believed that the notion of sustainable development requires a measure of the environmental costs of pursuing those goals.

According to that update, the top 10 ranking countries (in 2019) were Costa Rica, Vanuatu, Colombia, Switzerland, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Guatemala, Honduras and Uruguay.

In the HPI Report of 2006 (by nef) they emphasized that they "were forced to estimate data on Footprint and life satisfaction for several countries".

The ecological footprint, championed by the WWF, is widely used by both local and national governments, as well as supranational organizations such as the European Commission.

[18] A 2007 review of progress indicators produced by the European Parliament[19] lists the following pros and cons to using the HPI as a measure of national progress: For the 2019 ranking, 152 countries were compared and eight out of the ten top countries were located in Central and South America, despite high levels of poverty.

The ranking was led by Costa Rica with an HPI score of 62.1, with its lead considered to be due to its very high life expectancy of 77 years.

[20] Citizens of Costa Rica were found to experience well-being higher than many richer nations and the country had a per capita footprint less than one third the size of the US.