Here’s a story that caught my eye this week. Through its latest census, the city of Somerville is trying to collect data on not only the usual demographic stuff about it’s residents, but also on how happy they are.
Reports The New York Times:
Officials here want this Boston suburb to become the first city in the United States to systematically track people’s happiness. Like leaders in Britain, France and a few other places, they want to move beyond the traditional measures of success — economic growth — to promote policies that produce more than just material well-being.
The idea is to correlate happiness data with influencers like proximity to bike paths or parks, or availability of public transportation. They want to use the data to determine whether the city’s social policies improve the quality of life for residents.
Obviously the census has more questions than just the one about happiness, but that’s the one that’s getting all the media attention. So why not ask it here? Southborough residents, take a moment to answer the poll below and let’s find out how happy we all are (or aren’t).
(Note: If you’re reading this via the My Southborough daily email, you’ll need to visit the blog to vote or see the results.)
(Photo posted to Flickr by Joe Shlabotnik)
