The UAE is a great place to live and an attractive destination to visit, no matter your age or nationality. And so it should come as no surprise that Mercer’s 2016 annual Quality of Living index ranked the country’s biggest cities, Dubai and Abu Dhabi, at the top of a list for the Middle East.
The UAE also rates high on the UN World Happiness Report, ranking the 20th happiest country in the world last year, above the United Kingdom and all Arab countries. We have even established a new ministerial position to further our goal of becoming an even happier society.
These surveys can be useful, at least as conversation pieces. But it is one thing to work towards happiness and quite another to try to measure happiness and quality of life. The calculus involved are surely different for a 20-year-old Emirati and a 50-year-old western expatriate. Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes happiness or quality of living. So, what makes you happy?
