In “Happiness and the Human Development Index: The Paradox of Australia,” Blanchflower
and Oswald (2005) observe an apparent puzzle: they claim that Australia ranks highly in the
Human Development Index (HDI), but relatively poorly in happiness. However, when we
compare their happiness data with the HDI, Australia appears happier, not sadder, than its
HDI score would predict. This conclusion also holds when we turn to a larger cross-national
dataset than the one used by Blanchflower and Oswald, when we analyse life satisfaction in
place of happiness, and when we measure development using GDP per capita in place of the
HDI. Indeed, in the World Values Survey, only one other country (Iceland) has a significantly
higher level of both life satisfaction and happiness than Australia. Our findings accord with
numerous cross-national surveys conducted since the 1940s, which have consistently found
that Australians report high levels of wellbeing.