What makes a person happy? Is it money? Health? Love?
There’s really no simple answer to this question.
Still, what better time to discuss it than right now? It is the International Day of Happiness, after all!
International Day of Happiness
Established by the United Nations, this day is celebrated every year on March 20th.
It was created to recognize the importance of happiness for people in all countries around the world.
But how do you know if a country is happy or not?
With the World Happiness Report, of course!
What’s the World Happiness Report?
The World Happiness Report is published every year by the United Nations. It ranks countries by how happy their citizens feel. Each country on the report gets a “happiness score.”
Measuring happiness
About 1,000 people are surveyed in each country. Each respondent has to rank their life on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is the worst possible life, and 10 is the best.
Everyone’s answers are then averaged to determine the country’s overall score.
Key Happiness Factors
Why do some countries appear to be so much happier than others?
Well, there are six main factors connected to your happiness. These factors can’t explain everything, but they get pretty close!
GDP
GDP stands for “gross domestic product.” This is the value of all the goods and services of a country. A higher GDP means a better economy—and that generally means happier citizens.
Social support
Happy people have friends or family who can support them when they need help.
Healthy life expectancy
This is the average number of “healthy” years you’ll probably live. A healthy life is a big indicator of well-being.
Freedom to make life choices
It’s probably not surprising: Being allowed to make your own choices increases your life satisfaction.
Generosity
Being generous (making donations to a charity or helping someone, for example), can increase your feelings of well-being.
Corruption
This is whether you believe that the powerful people in your country (government or police, for example) are honest or not. Believing in corruption can make you unhappy.
Focus on Happiness
On the International Day of Happiness, focus on things that make you—and those around you—happiest!
International Happiness Day Comprehension
See Grammar explanation 
In general, when we talk or write we use the active voice, that follows the typical word order where we put the subject before the verb. We use the PASSIVE VOICE when we want to give importance to the object or the the action (verb), instead of the subject. For example:
– The news are given by the Director every morning.
Subject+ To Be + participle + by + object
In this sentence, the person who performs the action is “the director”, but that is not relevant information. The important piece of information are the news, that become the subject of the passive sentence.
In this is case, the sentence is in the present simple affirmative, this is why we use the present simple form of the verb To Be “are”. The verb To Be will give the tense and form of the sentence. For example:
– The Starry Night was painted by Van Gogh.
Subject + To Be (Past Simple Affirmative) + participle + by + object
– The house hasn’t been cleaned by anyone.
Subject+ To Be (Present Perfect Negative) + participle + by + object
– The task must be finished by someone
Subject+ (Modal verb) To Be + participle + object
To form questions, we simply move the verb To Be before the subject of the passive sentence
– Were you invited by the host?
To Be (Past Simple) + subject + participle + subject?
We use “by” to say who performs the action. This becomes the object of the passive sentence. Sometimes this information is not important and we can simply omit it. For example:
The house was built by someone in 1908.
Subject + To Be (Past Simple Affirmative) + participle + object
The house was built in 1980.
Subject + To Be (Past Simple Affirmative) + participle
As you can see, who built the house is not important information and we can omit it.
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Thanks of the text above. I didn’t know the March 20th, the day of celebrated the happiness. And the six factors wish provoque the happiness. I think when a country have GDP ( Gross Domestic Product), is very good to matched the other 5 factors. If the people doesn’t stay away of corruption, they will be of lack of happiness, the people become sad. The Buddhist way ,say, the happiness are inside of us and not a external factor, but we need enough income , and other happiness factors to be happy. We don’t need be to rich, but enough… Read more »