Our History (very briefly)

We got our start in 2010, as a project of Sustainable Seattle, world renown for being, the first nonprofit to create regional sustainability indictors through a community-based approach. The Happiness Index was Sustainable Seattle’s fifth set of sustainability indicators, a departure from previous approaches in taking subjective indicator approach. The Happiness Index is based on Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index, with permission from high level governmental officials.  In 2011, the Seattle City Government joined Somerville Maine as being the first two cities in the USA to measure happiness and use the data. In Seattle, the Seattle City Council used our Happiness Index data, provided through the 2011 Seattle Area Happiness Initiative report, to make budgeting decisions. By 2012, cities and communities across the USA were using the Happiness Index, and in Seattle, still part of Sustainable Seattle. That same year, the Happiness Alliance worked with refugee and immigrant communities to measurably assess social justice and racial inequality with the support of the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.  In 2012, the Happiness Alliance became its own nonprofit, with the blessing of Sustainable Seattle’s board of directors, because of the spreading use of the Happiness Index across the globe. People in over 125 nations use the Happiness Index to assess their wellbeing, and communities in over 20 nations are using the Happiness Index to assess community wellbeing. Our project, Planet Happiness was launched in 2018 as the first to bring the Happiness Movement to the tourism sector.