As the world population reaches 7.8 billion, and the need for an eco-friendly lifestyle grows, governments and authorities around the world are striving to improve the environment for people and wildlife alike.
Icelandair is a leading airline in sustainability, and they wanted to see to what extent these adjustments have a positive effect on the citizens, if at all. To do so, the airline company compared the happiest cities in the world from the World Happiness Report to environmental metrics to see if there was a correlation.
The comparison shows that the happiest cities have fewer cars, a high proportion of sustainable energy, and high Walk Scores, meaning high access to amenities within walking distance.
Tel Aviv is an exception, with a high happiness score but only 5% sustainable energy percentage and the lowest recycling rates compared to the other cities at 19%.
Reykjavik takes the cake with 99% sustainable energy, the greenest space per capita, the least amount of cars, and a 92/100 Walk Score.
The study shows that generally, the more environmentally friendly a city is, the happier its residents, which is good news considering the UN 'code red' report that warned that climate change is a more rapidly approaching issue than previously thought.