Can Drugs Make You Happy?

June 25, 2009

A little mash-up of drugs use figures and world happiness ratings.


sources: Guardian Datablog, Worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl | my data Google Spreadsheet | download a hi-res PDF, roll it up and smoke it
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Posted in Data Mash-up, Fun, Health, Visual Journalism.
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31 Comments

  1. Alexander
    Posted August 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm | Permalink

    Haha, brilliant :D

  2. traf
    Posted August 7, 2009 at 12:38 am | Permalink

    what about russiaa poland holand thailand and other countries?

  3. Ralph Lee
    Posted August 17, 2009 at 5:44 am | Permalink

    You seem to have marked Myanmar (Burma) when you meant to highlight Thailand.

  4. Eddie
    Posted August 17, 2009 at 1:29 pm | Permalink

    typical,,,, England and Wales,, always the same what about SCOTLAND/IRELAND, must have been a twat who devised this shit…….. booooooooooooooooooooooooo!

  5. Pepijn
    Posted August 17, 2009 at 2:42 pm | Permalink

    Note how in the Netherlands (with the most liberal softdrugs policy in the world) less than 7% (5.4% to be exact; i looked it up in the original source) of people use illegal drugs (yes, softdrugs are illegal in the Netherlands), while in the US, with its War on Drugs, more than 7% do (namely 12.3%, more than twice as much).

  6. Anne
    Posted August 18, 2009 at 4:00 pm | Permalink

    Your mention England and Wales but have the whole of the British Isles and Ireland coloured in!

  7. martin
    Posted August 21, 2009 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

    What about Tasmania? its part of Australia you know?

  8. HT
    Posted August 21, 2009 at 10:30 pm | Permalink

    Hmmm, and what if you looked at drug use that is not illegal?

  9. Tom
    Posted August 22, 2009 at 12:19 am | Permalink

    Sorry to be picky, but every time Australia is coloured you forgot to include Tasmania…

  10. tickle
    Posted August 23, 2009 at 11:16 am | Permalink

    ha. i know it’s nonsense but it looks like in saudi arabia people are happy without drugs and in france people are wasted but not happy.

  11. david
    Posted August 25, 2009 at 4:55 pm | Permalink

    sorry about this. I will not forget Tasmania again.

  12. mmarian
    Posted August 27, 2009 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    lol @ dropping out Tasmania;), first thing i noticed too. ps, this site is awesome:) i really love it:))

  13. tips
    Posted August 29, 2009 at 11:02 pm | Permalink

    COOL !!!

  14. Anton
    Posted August 31, 2009 at 7:50 pm | Permalink

    Hmm, in all three instances you mention Venezuela, yet you only color it as blue (making it druggy, but not happy).

  15. Jay
    Posted September 3, 2009 at 10:28 am | Permalink

    Oh dear. You coloured in Burma/Myanmar (home of a repressive military dictatorship, constant censorship, civil war) instead of Thailand on the “happy” map.

    It really sticks out… I suggest you correct that…

  16. cheech
    Posted September 6, 2009 at 10:18 pm | Permalink

    you forgot germany ;) and of course holland!

  17. cheech
    Posted September 6, 2009 at 10:23 pm | Permalink

    more than 30% of the kids in germany are smoking pot. thats really bad. and they start drinking befor they are 10years old. germany are one of the biggest drug users in the world!

  18. bbn
    Posted September 9, 2009 at 4:57 am | Permalink

    The 6.8/10 Happiness rating is arbitrary. Your argument is invalid.

  19. Marcel
    Posted September 9, 2009 at 6:15 pm | Permalink

    How about a correlation between each of Happiness and Drug use against GDP? Which of Drugs and GDP correlate best with happiness? How about Drugs and GDP together?

  20. Cory
    Posted September 22, 2009 at 10:47 pm | Permalink

    Ha! PS This site is awesome. Recently came across it and am now subscribed in Google Reader.

  21. Vooloc
    Posted October 2, 2009 at 10:51 am | Permalink

    everyone that moves here to Tassie says they cant believe how much weed people smoke down here haha

  22. Avis Thomas
    Posted October 18, 2009 at 4:00 am | Permalink

    As you note, correlation does not show causality. It would be interesting to do a regression with wealth as an adjusting variable. It could be that more money makes you happier, and gives you the resources to buy drugs. This may partially “explain” the U.S. and Europe.

  23. cheekoo
    Posted October 23, 2009 at 11:42 am | Permalink

    I don’t believe my eyes u have missed out europe , we have the drug and sex capital of world there amsterdam and even people in india take drugs the only thing is it is not legal in india

  24. Aung Kyaw
    Posted October 24, 2009 at 12:35 am | Permalink

    How in the world can Burma, one of the most oppressed and impoverished countries in the world, be one of the happiest simultaneously? I think you highlighted the wrong country, instead of Thailand.

  25. Monty
    Posted October 24, 2009 at 3:35 am | Permalink

    You do say that it’s just a correlation, though the headline suggests otherwise. I’m probably just being too picky, since it seems pretty tongue in cheek, but it’s very likely that happiness and drug use are largely independent and both caused by a common factor, like income level, for example.

  26. Saara
    Posted October 29, 2009 at 6:04 pm | Permalink

    I like what you do it’s brilliant. It’s just that some of the ‘happiest’ countries you have marked also have the highest suicide rates in the world.

  27. gifts for men
    Posted November 13, 2009 at 5:35 am | Permalink

    The person taking drugs, harms himself in long term but wot the firm needs is output. If a person taking drugs does it for more money, he in turn gets extra money for the extra benefit he gives to his firm. As far as the person taking drugs is happy with wot he does, the firm shouldn’t have a problem with him.

  28. Horvath
    Posted November 14, 2009 at 1:05 pm | Permalink

    it is not about country name or border the idea of whole post is very good and funny.Wtf whit
    ” I don’t see X country…” or “My country uses drug to why didn’t you marked it??” ….and by the way you forgotten Romania… :P Its ok I don’t need a statistic, to use drug or to be funny…I do this thing voluntary.
    Peace an bless !!

  29. Vince Whirlwind
    Posted November 23, 2009 at 12:45 am | Permalink

    Why would anybody bother mentioning Wales & Scotland?

  30. Jake Goode
    Posted November 29, 2009 at 7:01 pm | Permalink

    On the first map you have marked Cote D’Ivoire, but list Ghana at the bottom. This work is sloppy, which spoils the effect. The analysis of correlation is no such thing. Statistical correlation would compare all the populations with all their figures for drug use, not simply the ones who exceed your arbitrary 7% benchmark, and the matching number of happiest.

  31. Paul Horn
    Posted January 16, 2010 at 11:23 pm | Permalink

    Yay — world maps minus boundary lines.

    Boo — parts of USA (like Alaska, Michigan’s upper peninsula, New England) and Canada (Newfoundland, Baffin Island, etc.) aren’t colored in when the rest of the countries are. Also called the “Tasmania Effect.”

    Lovely graphics, btw.

4 Trackbacks

  1. By Twitted by catarino on August 5, 2009 at 11:43 am

    [...] This post was Twitted by catarino [...]

  2. By Twitter Trackbacks for Can Drugs Make You Happy? | Information Is Beautiful [informationisbeautiful.net] on Topsy.com on August 21, 2009 at 2:51 am

    [...] Can Drugs Make You Happy? | Information Is Beautiful http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/can-drugs-make-you-happy – view page – cached A little mash-up of drugs use figures and world happiness ratings. sources: Guardian Datablog, Worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl | my data Google — From the page [...]

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