Analyzing Singapore’s Case, as the Happiest City in Asia

“What is happiness?”. That is a question that many Singaporeans have found themselves asking, as the Lion City has been named the third-happiest city in the world.

According to the London-based Institute for Quality of Life’s annual Happiest City Index report, Singapore is the 3rd happiest city in the world today, only behind Copenhagen and Zurich. This also places Singapore as the happiest city in Asia, in front of Seoul at 6th place and Taipei at 8th place, respectively.

Yet the reception of this placement by Singaporean citizens, especially in online spaces, has been mixed, especially in the aftermath of a general election that saw many of the economic and social policies in the city challenged.

Diplomatic Network (Asia) seeks to understand the logic behind Singapore’s ranking in this new metric and whether this really is indicative of how ordinary Singaporeans feel.

The limitations of rankings

Firstly, it should be noted that, as with many rankings, the Happiest City Index is just one of many different indices that attempt to measure composite qualitative factors. In fact, the Happiest City Index explicitly reminds readers right from the beginning that “the concept of a “happy city” will always differ based on individual perspectives”.

Furthermore, the idea of Singapore being ranked 3rd is a bit misleading as the Index does not seek to create a definitive ranking of all major cities surveyed, but rather group them into “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” categories. Singapore is just one of over thirty cities given a “gold” accreditation by the Index.

Secondly, being the “happiest city” is not the same as being the “happiest nation”. In fact, earlier this year, in March, Singapore made headlines for falling to a decade-low ranking on the World Happiness Report coordinated by the United Nations that ranked countries based on “happiness”.

However, Singapore’s high ranking on the list is still an impressive achievement considering that 200 cities in total were awarded either one of the three “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” categories. To figure out why that is the case, the methodology of the Index should be studied.

Why Singapore is ranked so highly

The Happiest City Index is judged based on six categories, each with its own sub-groups and criteria. Analyzing the list from this angle does help to explain the logic behind Singapore’s high ranking.

Singapore scored higher in the “governance” metric than Copenhagen and Zurich. This metric focuses on not only government transparency and fair elections, but also accessibility to e-services, which Singapore has developed consistently over the last decade as the nation transitioned towards becoming a smart city.

However, it should be noted that many cities ranked below Singapore, including Seoul and Taipei, had a slightly higher index.

The new ‘health’ metric is not only focused on medical quality and accessibility but also encompasses the frequency of crime and traffic incidents. Additionally, the ‘health’ metric places a premium on free vaccination of children, which falls neatly into Singapore’s hands as childhood vaccinations are fully subsidized.

While Singapore is tied with Copenhagen and higher than Zurich when comparing the ‘health’ metric, once again, there are many other cities ranked lower than Singapore which score higher on this category.

In fact, in all six categories, Singapore only cracks the top fifteen of all cities in just one, “economy”. This category ranks nations based on GDP, unemployment and entrepreneurship, all of which may seem surprising successes given the volatility of the global economy, which Singapore is so reliant on.

Ultimately, what best explains Singapore’s high score is balance. While many cities do place higher than Singapore when comparing individual metrics, Singapore remains a high scorer in all six categories, thereby shooting the city upwards in the rankings.

A full breakdown of the methodology for the Happiest City Index can be read here.

What does being the 3rd Happiest City mean for Singaporeans?

To many Singaporeans, being given the label of one of the happiest cities in the world, there are concerns about rising wealth inequality and the cost of living. However, there are two reasons why this ranking is not as absurd as some may suppose.

Firstly, Singaporeans of all social backgrounds benefit from access to health, transport and public services that are efficient. Therefore, Singaporeans can expect to live long lives with stable government subsidies.

Secondly, Singaporean discourse tends to fall into the realm of familiarity bias, where the more exposed one is to a location, the more noticeable its flaws. Comparatively, the city-state is navigating the current economic climate better than many other nations, with an inflation rate of only 0.9%, compared to South Korea at 2.1% and the United Kingdom at 3.5%.

Ultimately, regardless of where Singapore is ranked on the Happiest City Index, the actual changes year by year are unlikely to be incredibly noticeable in daily life. What we could definitely say is that Singapore does offer individuals the opportunity of improving one’s quality of life by keeping a policy of meritocracy, a deterrent to any corruption-oriented wealth growth.