On this International Day of Happiness, the Observatory of Portuguese Society of the Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics joins the various international entities in recognizing the importance of this celebration. Since 2015, this Observatory has been dedicated to monitoring several indicators, including indicators of happiness and well-being.

The general indicators of global happiness, satisfaction with life in general, and satisfaction with daily activities were measured several times between October 2015 and November 2018. The scale used ranges from 0 to 10 points.

The results obtained during this period indicate a slight improvement in the 3 indicators. In general, participants report feeling happy, satisfied with life, and satisfied with their daily activities (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Evolution of the average values of the general indicators between October 2015 and November 2018.

The values of happiness obtained in the surveys of the Observatory are consistent with the ones reported by the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) carried out in 2016, and quite close to the average of the European Union (MPortugal = 7.5 and MEuropean Union = 7.4 in the EQLS 2016, measured on a scale of 1 to 10 points).

In the EQLS 2016, countries like Finland, Denmark and Luxembourg have the highest levels of happiness, while Albania, Greece and Turkey are the countries with the lowest levels.

As regards levels of life satisfaction, the figures recorded in the Observatory's surveys are also consistent with the EU average recorded in the EQLS 2016 (MPortugal = 6.9 and MEuropean Union = 7.1 in the EQLS 2016, measured on a scale of 1 to 10 points). Denmark and Finland are among the countries with the highest levels of life satisfaction in the EQLS 2016, while Albania, Greece and Bulgaria are the countries with the lowest level.