Why is Kazakhstan the 49th country in the happiness index?
Kazakhstan, a country in Central Asia adorned with towering mountains and the shimmering expanse of the Caspian Sea. It has the 9th largest territory out of all countries and it is rich with resources like oil, coal, natural gas, copper and so on. This country has great wealth and potential… So, why is it in 49th place in the World Happiness index?
Criterias of country happiness are: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. So based on this data the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford calculates and makes this list. Official country ranking is here: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-countries-in-the-world .
In 2014 in ranking Kazakhstan was in 60 place and world happiness score was 5.819, now it is 6.19. The main factor of increased happiness is an increase in economic growth and this was resulted mainly thanks to its capacity of energy resources. It ranked 17th in the world for crude oil production and 24th for natural gas. It is the largest oil producer in Central Asia and being the main supplier of those products increases exports which increases GDP. Besides usage of earth resources as a revenue making tool, Kazakhstan began to improve international relationships with other countries. E.g. by hosting various high-profile events such as EXPO 2017. Its efforts in promoting dialogue and cooperation in Central Asia and beyond have increased its visibility on the global stage. Also increasing infrastructure has drawn attention to the country. And it may be suprising, because in comparison to some Central Asian countries it had a stable political situation. And as selling products abroad, tourism also counts as export of services. From 2014 till 2020 tourism accounted in GDP has increased from 0.3% to 3%. Also life expectancy has increased from 69.9 to 74.02. Besides, unemployment rate has decreased from 5.06% in 2014 to 4.70% in 2023.
However, an increase in ranking doesn’t mean that the happiness of the population has actually increased. GDP might have increased by 4 billion US dollars (in 2014: 221,42$ billion to 2024: 225.5$ billion) population also grew and in total GDP per capita has decreased from $12 807 to $11 492. Plus it doesn’t mean that everyone gets this amount of income. The Gini coefficient that represents the inequality index, was 29.2 in 2021 which is bigger than in 2014. A large problem is corruption that also plays its role in happiness coefficient. In 2023 Kazakhstan was the 93rd corrupt country out of 180 others according to https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/kazakhstan
To conclude, Kazakhstan has made great progress in developing its economy plus increasing standard of living. As everything, it isn’t perfect and has its own drawbacks. It had a lot of difficulties on the way, and some stigma from the rest of the world as of the name -stan, because a lot of people assume that countries with such endings in their name are poorer and have more problems but it made the top 50 countries in the World Happiness ranking.
Article written by Amina Beiganova | Proofread by Zhangir Zhangaskin
