In "Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia," Blanchflower and Oswald (2005) observe an … apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in … happiness. However, when we compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its HDI score …

According to the well-being measure known as the U.N. Human Development Index, Australia now ranks 3rd in the world and … happiness, considers implications for policymakers, and explores where Australia lies in international subjective well …, where a common language should help subjective measures to be reliable, Australia performs poorly on a range of happiness …