Province to use index to gauge happiness

GUANGZHOU - Guangdong officials have issued a happiness index system to guide various governments to help people feel more content.

The system is meant to lead to a better understanding of what constitutes happiness, build a healthy social mentality and provide rational expectations for life, said Xu Jianhua, director of the provincial development and reform commission, at a news conference on Tuesday. It is the first of its kind to be adopted by a provincial government.Recognizing the complexity involved in measuring the feeling of happiness, Xu said the province's system consists of both objective and subjective indices.

The objective indices look at residents' employment and incomes, educations and culture, medical care and health, consumption and housing, and the social services they can take advantage of.