“Gross National Happiness implies that sustainable development should take a holistic approach towards notions of progress and give equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing. The concept of GNH has often been explained by its four pillars: good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation. Lately the four pillars have been further classified into nine domains in order to create widespread understanding of GNH and to reflect the holistic range of GNH values:”

1. Psychological wellbeing

2. Health

3. Use of time

4. Education

5. Cultural diversity and resilience

6. Good Governance

7. Community vitality

8. Ecological diversity and resilience

9. Living standards

“Now how do we identify who is happy? The GNH Index wishes to respect diversity and freedom of choice and to also acknowledge the limitations of quantitative measures. Hence it identifies as happy any person who has achieved sufficiency in six of the nine domains, or in 66% of the weighted indicators. This allows for diversity in different ways. First, not all indicators are relevant to all people – wildlife damage to crops is not relevant to urban populations. Second, every person may not need sufficiency in 100% of the indicators to be happy; they may focus on some areas, depending on their own values and skills. Third, if people have a core of achievements, they may be able to compensate internally for other deficits. A person without education or electricity can find other routes to GNH.”

Text retrieved from: Gross National Happiness Index