The Philippines ranks 17th among the 178 countries ranked as the happiest on Earth, according to a study measuring people’s well being and their impact on the environment. The tiny South Pacific Ocean archipelago of Vanuatu is the happiest, with Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, and Panama completing the top five in the Happy Planet Index compiled by the British think-tank New Economics Foundation. The index combines life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental footprint -- the amount of land required to sustain the population and absorb its energy consumption. Andrew Simms, NEF's policy director, said the index "addresses the relative success or failure of countries in giving their citizens a good life while respecting the environmental resource limits on which all our lives depend." Nic Marks, the head of NEF's center for wellbeing, added: "It is clear that no single nation listed in the Happy Planet Index has got everything right. "But the index does reveal patterns that show how we might better achieve long and happy lives for all, whilst living within our environmental means," he said.