Costa Rica Labeled Healthiest Latin American Country By Bloomberg

Costa Rica was named as the healthiest Latin American country by Bloomberg. It turns out that besides being among the happiest people in the world, Costa Ricans rank as the healthiest as well.

In a study by Bloomberg, the Latin American country ranked 24th on the global scale and topped the Latin America list with a health grade of 74.01 %, followed by Chile and Cuba with 72.46% and 72.11% respectively.

According to a report by The Tico Times, the World Health Organization's (WHO) analysis takes certain factors into accounts such as health indicators including child mortality, life expectancy and mortality rates from the aforementioned 145 countries. The data gathered also evaluates health risk factors such as the percentage of smokers in the population, obesity rates or those with high cholesterol or high blood pressure, among others.

According to the Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica has achieved a Happy Planet index score of 64.0 %, ranking it at number twelve out of 151 countries that have been analyzed. Despite the country's high levels of poverty and violence, it remains to be one of the classic examples that countries might be happier than what their GDP might indicate.

According to The Telegraph UK, Costa Rica is a peace-loving nation with its  constitution forbidding a standing army since 1949. The Latin American nation is now the home of the United Nations University for Peace. Additionally, life expectancy in the country comes at an impressive 79 years, with most of its individuals opting for a simpler lifestyle. In fact, residents of the Nicoya Peninsula have been reported to reach the age of 100 years because they have chosen to embrace a simple lifestyle, making a living out of farming or cattle ranches. Costa Rica also hopes to be carbon neutral by the year 2021.

The report with The Tico Times said that countries in Latin America generally fare well on happiness surveys. In fact, in March of this year Gallup reported that Latin Americans were among the "happiest" people on the planet.

The Gallup index had quantified people's responses to questions about positive experiences they had on the day before the poll. The questions asked included how much they smiled or laughed, or how well-rested they were and whether or not the respondents did anything interesting that day.

Other Latin American countries which made the top 50 healthiest countries are Mexico, Panama, Ecuador and Argentina.

According to the Bloomberg ranking, Singapore is the world's healthiest country, followed by Italy and Australia.