China Happiness Survey: Are the Results Worth a Smile?

How happy are Chinese families? It’s not as simple a question as it may appear.

The China Population Welfare Foundation asked around in nine Chinese cities and found that two-thirds of Chinese families are “not very happy” with their health, interpersonal relationships or social security, as reported by XinhuaNews and UPI.com.

WomenofChina.cn chose the optimism approach, however, reporting on the same survey that although “ 36.3 percent of the families polled feel ‘very happy,’ 47.5 percent said they are ‘relatively happy. A total of 14.7 percent said they felt ‘so-so’ about their family life.“

The surveys were conducted among 9,604 families between August and October. We can only imagine how so-so respondents would have felt had they been asked in December.

The first issue of COLORS magazine in China reminds us that happiness also may depend on who’s asking: “China comes 121st out of 151 countries in the 2009 Gallup happiness survey, but first with a perfect 100 rating in a 2011 Global Happiness Index compiled by North Korean Central Television."

And here’s what Charlie Brown thinks about it all.