In its quest to achieve this, the city in the sand is measuring people’s happiness through interactive touchpoints around Dubai, called Happiness Meters.
There are three emojis on each meter — a happy face, a neutral face and a sad face — which people use to rank their satisfaction with everyday services. Results from the meters feed into a Happiness Index; the number of smiley faces tapped determines the city’s “happiness score.”
“In order to become the happiest city, we knew we would need a way to listen to everyone in the city, and understand their current levels of happiness with city services,” Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, director general of Smart Dubai, told CNN over email.
Dubai’s ‘happiness score’
The current “happiness score” for Dubai, measured by over 6 million votes from Happiness Meters, sits at 90 percent, according to Bishr.
“Our goal is to increase Dubai’s happiness index level to 95 percent by 2021,” she added.
In an attempt to streamline public services, Smart Dubai has installed sensors in garbage bins to send alerts when they need emptying. It has also developed DubaiNow — an app for residents to pay their bills, fines and complete over 55 city services.
But happiness is no laughing matter, and the UAE has invested a lot of time and resources into its people’s subjective well-being.
How to make people happy
The Ministry of Happiness’ role is to promote and prioritize happiness in government and everyday life.
In Dubai there has been a plethora of happiness themed events organized by government including a “happiness park” to promote exercise, a “happiness journey” on International Happiness Day, and various happiness festivals including activities like laughter meditation.
Should governments regulate happiness?
But not everyone is happy with the UAE’s Happiness Agenda.
In response to this, Bishr told CNN that any action or decision taken by a government entity is to ensure better standards of living and happier lives for their people.
“Happiness should be the overarching goal of governments,” he told CNN.
Measuring a subjective feeling
“People are the best judges of whether they’re happy or not,” said Wiking.
The happiness rankings are then explained by looking at six key variables — GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
According to Wiking, those six factors are important indicators for why some countries rank higher than others.
“It is extremely ambitious to be one of the five happiest countries by 2021,” Wiking said, commenting on the UAE’s desire to become one of the happiest nations in the world.
“Norway just pushed Denmark out of first place this year. You’re down to the second decimal now that separates number one from number two,” he added.
Wiking has every confidence that Dubai is taking the right steps toward achieving its own goal. He has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE government, promising to share expertise and knowledge.
“I haven’t seen many other governments as ambitious,” he said.
“They have an explicit ambition of where they want to be, so that is something tangible and measurable.”
If you’re happy and you know it
While the World Happiness Report ranks nations’ happiness, it doesn’t do the same for individual cities. This makes it difficult for Dubai to asses where it stands.
However, Bishr said Smart Dubai is working on ways to compare levels of happiness in Dubai with other cities in the world.
“When a city commits itself to people’s happiness, it is not only the individual who will benefit,” explained Bishr.
“When people are happier the city benefits, which in turn feeds benefits directly back to the individual and so on in a positive cycle.”
