What makes people happy?

The National Geographic sums up “Five Takeaways From UN’s Global Report on Happiness“:

After checking out the ‘happiest places’ – Denmark, etc. – some common themes emerge:

• 1. It (mostly) pays to be rich.
• 2. More money means more problems..
• 3. Being poor in Europe can be particularly rough.
• 4. Nice weather doesn’t correlate to happiness.

And then there’s this:

5. Happy people ride bicycles—by choice.

Denmark and the Netherlands (the happiest and the fourth-happiest countries on Earth) are renowned for being the world’s most bicycle-friendly nations; the other most-happy countries are also famously bicycle friendly.

Canada is sixth on the list.  Do we move up if we bike more?  (Note No. 4.)

And stay tuned for “Happy City” – the new book by Vancouver’s own Charles Montgomery.