Vietnam ranked world's 5th happiest country

By Pham Van July 21, 2016 | 11:00 pm PT

'Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth.'

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The Happy Planet Index (HPI) report compiled by the U.K.-based New Economics Foundation has been announced for 2016 with Costa Rica coming out on top and Vietnam named the fifth happiest country in the world.

Vietnam is officially the happiest country in Asia, with the rest of the top five made up of Mexico, Colombia and Vanuatu.

The HPI focuses on the four elements that contribute to a happy life in 140 countries: wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of outcomes and ecological footprint.

Vietnam scored 40.3 on the HPI, falling into a group of countries with a score of 37.7 to 40.6 in the third band from the top down. Only Costa Rica with 44.7 fell into the top category with a score of over 44.6.

The element that contributed the most to Vietnam’s position was life expectancy, in which Vietnam registered an impressive average of 75.5 years.

The country's ecological footprint, which measures each resident’s impact on the environment, was 1.7 global hectares per capita. Vietnam was also one of only three countries with a score low enough to be considered environmentally sustainable.

Although falling back in the inequality of outcomes category, Vietnam’s score was still better than Costa Rica's due to robust provision of public services and increased quantity and quality of education facilities.