ABSTRACT
The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is a commendable attempt to develop an index that includes well-being and life expectancy at its heart, but adjusts them in terms of inequality and relates this ‘benefit’ to the cost to the planet in terms of resource use. HPI is an attempt to generate a benefit:cost ratio, with benefit assessed in terms of ‘happy life expectancy’ and cost in terms of impact on the planet assessed as the Ecological Footprint. The HPI is produced by a non-governmental organisation called the New Economics Foundation whose strapline is ‘Economics as if the people and the planet mattered’. The HPI is relatively high in Latin America, Europe and parts of Asia and low in the countries of Africa that had values for the index as well as Russia, the US and Australia. The HPI has a solid logic and certainly has had its adherents.
