Denmark beats Ukraine in global rankings of wealth, health, longevity, environment, ease of doing business — and even happiness.
The two latest reports on World Happiness and Global Progress show Ukraine as one of the world`s unhappier nations. Denmark, on the other hand, is at the top of both lists, proving that happiness and social progress of a nation are linked to the health of the economy.
Denmark, a Nordic country of five million people, is first on the list of the 2017 Social Progress Index, made by the U.S.-based nongovernmental organization Social Progress Imperative with the support of Deloitte, an audit firm. It ranks third in the independent 2018 World Happiness Report for 2015–2017 published by the United Nations.
At the same time, Ukraine is ranked 64th among 128 countries on the list of the 2017 Social Progress Index, with its happiness dropping to 138th out of 156 countries in the latest survey.
Ukrainian Andrii Kuzmyn, 36, who has lived in Denmark for more than a decade, believes that life there is much easier and agrees that society in Denmark is happier as well.
“Denmark provides people with a good salary, which is a basic component of social security and happiness, unlike Ukraine, where people mostly do not earn money but try to survive on such a low salary,” Kuzmyn said.
Social progress
The 2017 Social Progress Index puts Denmark as the top-ranked country.
The report defines social progress as the capacity of a society to meet all basic human needs.
The Social Progress Index focuses on life outcomes in such fields as education, medicine, nutrition, and shelter, instead of measuring people`s life satisfaction or happiness.
“Denmark has long been admired for its successful social welfare policies and quality of life,” the Social Progress Index official report reads.
Unlike Denmark, Ukrainian society poorly scores in such categories as personal freedom of choice, inclusion, and Tolerance and finishes with an upper-middle ranking.
Dane Nicki Olesen, 42, who lives in Ukraine, says that Ukrainians and Danish people have different lives.
“Denmark is number one on the list of the least corrupt countries, and in Denmark, everything goes by the rules, it is so well-organized,” Olesen told the Kyiv Post. “The streets are nice and clean, all the buses run on time and, in comparison to Ukraine, people do not need to worry about all these simple things,” Olesen said.
Olesen says that the ecological situation is better in Denmark with people accustomed to recycling and a government that promotes eco-friendly initiatives.
The 2018 Social Progress Index shows that in rankings of environmental quality, Denmark ranks fourth while Ukraine finishes 112th among 146 countries ranked, with high greenhouse gas emissions as well as high levels of air pollution.
Happiness
The latest independent World Happiness Report, published by the United Nations in March 2018, says that “social factors have a great impact on the level of happiness in a country.”
Taking into account criteria that indicate quality of life such as income, social support, freedom of speech and life expectancy, Denmark is again among the top four countries.
Ukraine is closer to the bottom of the list and was ranked 138th in the 2018 World Happiness Report.
“The 10 countries with the largest declines in average life evaluations typically suffered some combination of economic, political, and social stresses. The five largest drops since 2008–2010 were in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Malawi and Venezuela,” the World Happiness report official website reads.
Kuzmyn says happiness of society depends on how easy a person can change his or her life, find new work or a decent place to live.
“Denmark offers such opportunities, and in Ukraine, people are always under pressure to go and earn money,” Kuzmyn said.
Olesen says that happiness depends on money as well, and “in Denmark, basically, everybody has quite good living conditions.”
Ukraine is 75th among 153 countries in the 2018 Good Country Index, an annual rating published by the British organization Good Country that measures 37 options provided by such organizations as UNICEF and United Nations. While Ukraine dropped 21 positions since last year, Denmark took fifth place in the 2018 Good Country Index, remaining among the best countries for living in the world.
