Statistically Positioning of Countries in the Context of Happy Planet Index Data

Year 2018, Volume: 22 Issue: 4, 2497 - 2510, 31.12.2018

Sevda Gürsakal , Dilek Murat

Abstract

Abstract: In the present
study, the Happy Planet Index (HPI) 2016 data was analyzed for the EU, OECD and
MENA countries, and the relative positions of these countries were attempted to
be determined. Furthermore, the study aimed to determine the position of Turkey
with respect to these countries. Statistical analysis results demonstrated that
Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Lithuania and Slovakia
were similar EU countries based on the HPI variables, while Norway,
Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Canada, Finland and Australia were
the most similar countries among the OECD nations. In the analysis conducted
for MENA countries, it was determined that Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia,
Iran, Syria and Tunisia were the most similar countries, while Zambia was the
most different country. In the analysis conducted for both EU and OECD
countries, it was found that the most divergent country was Luxembourg, and
Zambia was the most different country among MENA countries, and the most
significant source of this difference was the ecological footprint variable.
Turkey was similar to Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, Mexico, Algeria and
Lebanon in the Euclidean Distance Model graphs, thus, it was concluded that
Turkey exhibited similar characteristics with the abovementioned countries
based on the scrutinized variables.

Keywords

Happy Planet Index, Multivariate Statistical Method, Multidimensional Scaling Analysis

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