The Lingnan University Happiness Index of Hong Kong rose for a second year in a row, after dropping into a trough in 2007, a year during which Hong Kong enjoyed apparent economic prosperity. The Happiness Index was as low as 67.2 in 2007, noticeably lower than the 2005 figure of 71.4. 2009 saw the index rise to 70.6, just a shade below the high point of 2005.

The fact that the Happiness Index in Hong Kong rose in 2008 was quite surprising, given that the 2008 survey was conducted in October, right after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. At the time, the force of the financial tsunami had already been unleashed, and stock market indices worldwide were collapsing. At the time, we did find a relatively high percentage of unhappy people, especially among the highest income group. Seven out of the 55 interviewed in 2008 who reported more than HK$40,000 monthly income, or 12.7 percent, reported being unhappy. But the average happiness index for the 821 people surveyed was higher at 69.3, up from 67.2 in 2007.

Over the past two years we started to analyze the relationship between happiness and some "intrinsic variables" such as "love", "wisdom" ("insight"), "fortitude", and "engagement", as opposed to "extrinsic variables" such as income, the rule of law, and the environment, which was the focus in the earlier studies. The four-letter "happiness formula" tested is LIFE. To assess whether Hong Kong people care about others ("love"), we asked if the respondent agreed, "I very much care for my family" and "I very much care for social justice." To assess how wisely they conduct their lives ("insight"), we asked the respondent if he/she agreed that "success does not mean outperforming others"; "success means achieving the best I can"; "I am comfortable with myself and will not be troubled by my inadequacies"; "as long as I have acted according to my conscience, I do not worry about how others regard me." Fortitude was proxied by responses to "My faith and belief give me support when I experience hardship." Finally, we assessed engagement with questions such as, "I strive for opportunities to learn and develop my potential" and "I have clearly identified goals and purposes in life."

Interestingly and importantly, we have noticed an increase in the indices for love, insight, fortitude, and engagement for almost every age group. This, I believe, is an important reason why the happiness index has risen.

These are very positive signs of Hong Kong's becoming a stronger, more vibrant society. Apparently, Hong Kong people have learnt to adopt a wiser way of life, and have become more caring and more active over the years. Along with these developments, we have found a decline in the percentage of unhappy people almost for all income brackets.

Interestingly, we also found that females generally report higher indices for all the four intrinsic variables: love, insight, fortitude, and engagement. It is not clear to us why this is so, but the results appear to be robust, since females had higher scores for these variables in 2008 as well.

Also of interest, but at the same time deserving notice and concern, is the fact that people with university education have consistently been found to be less happy than other groups, once the effect of their generally higher income has been taken into account. In particular, we found lower love and wisdom scores among university graduates, even though the latter generally do report higher fortitude and engagement scores. This is a subject that our educators and policy makers need to address. If our university graduates are unhappy, and are less caring than others, we cannot claim that Hong Kong's university education is successful, no matter how high our universities rank in the world.

The author is professor and director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies, Lingnan University

(HK Edition 01/01/2010 page1)