Sustainable happiness of Thai people: Monitoring the Thai Happiness Index

ABSTRACT

This research investigates and monitors Thai people’s happiness via the Thai Happiness Index developed by Senasu. The Thai Happiness Index comprises five dimensions: subjective well-being, quality of life, philosophy of living, governance, and standard of living. In addition to reflecting the level of happiness of Thai people, this index also identifies related important issues. The research data were collected from survey data using interviewed questionnaires. The primary data were from stratified multi-stage sampling in each region, province, district, and enumeration area; and simple random sampling in each enumeration area. These data were collected in 13 provinces: Bangkok and 3 provinces in each of all four regions. The data were collected over two consecutive years. There were 3,217 usable responses from the 2017 sampling, and 3,280 usable responses from the 2018 sampling. The Senasu's Thai Happiness Index (THaI) was used to calculate and monitor the happiness level of Thai people in 2017 and 2018. The result reveals the 2018 THaI value is 0.556. When people are divided according to their degree of happiness, it is found that a total of 21.1% of the population are happy. The group of happy population reflects a THaI value of 0.789, which is much higher than the THaI value of 0.494 of the not-yet-happy population. Overall, Thai people have higher happiness compared to 2017 when the happiness index was 0.506, and only 14.6% of the population were happy.

KEYWORDS:

• Happiness
• quality of life
• sustainability
• Thai Happiness Index

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Research Council of Thailand and the operational support from the Research Center, National Institute of Development Administration.