Gross National Happiness

Gross National Happiness is Bhutan’s development framework for assessing progress through well-being, cultural preservation, environmental sustainability, and good governance alongside economic conditions.

GNH Index: Bhutan’s composite measure of Gross National Happiness across domains and indicators. It operationalizes the framework with indicators that classify people by their levels of sufficiency.
Gross National Happiness Commission: Bhutan’s government body responsible for coordinating national planning and Gross National Happiness policy. It connects the framework’s goals to national plans and agency activity.
Jigme Singye Wangchuck: The fourth king of Bhutan, who ruled from 1972 to 2006 and popularized Gross National Happiness. His 1970s articulation made the idea a guiding national development principle.
Human Development Index: A United Nations composite measure of average achievement in health, education, and income. It shares a multidimensional ambition but uses a narrower set of dimensions.
Nine Domains of Gross National Happiness: The nine areas Bhutan measures in its Gross National Happiness framework. They organize the framework’s indicators, from health and education to time use and ecology.
GNH screening tools: Assessment procedures used in Bhutan to examine proposed policies and projects against Gross National Happiness goals. They provide a policy-level check on likely effects across the framework’s dimensions.
Bhutan: A landlocked Himalayan kingdom between India and China. The framework emerged from Bhutan’s institutions, culture, and development strategy.
OECD Better Life Index: An OECD framework comparing well-being across eleven areas of material living conditions and quality of life. It offers a comparable well-being approach without Bhutan’s constitutional and cultural basis.
Gross Domestic Product: The monetary value of final goods and services produced within a country during a period. It measures production, while Gross National Happiness also assesses social and environmental conditions.
Bhutan Living Standards Survey: A nationally representative survey collecting information on living conditions in Bhutan. Survey data contribute to measuring conditions that the framework treats as dimensions of progress.

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