Guatemala vs Cuba: which country is "happier"?

This question was prompted partly by the fact that we have visited both countries this year, and partly by the fact that the two countries have had such different histories.

Of course there is no definitive way to measure an intangible quality like happiness.  However there are some pretty tangible indicators (income, infant mortality, homicide rate and literacy) which could be expected to have a material impact on a normal person's happiness.

Using these tangible indicators, it is amazing how one sided the comparison is - starting off with incomes as reported by the CIA:

Just about everybody in Cuba is able to read

Cuba's homicide rate is comparable to Chile - a country with nearly double  the per capita income

The infant mortality rate in Cuba speaks to the strength of its healthcare system.  In fact, medical care is a significant source of foreign currency for the country.

You could argue that this is an unfair comparison - that Cuba is simply a richer country - always was, always will be. 

One way to address this argument is to compare "Happiness" outcomes against incomes.  The intuition behind this, is simply that you would expect wealthier countries to be able to offer better health care, education etc.

The above chart builds on this intuition.  The X axis is simply per
capita income.  The Y axis is a custom Happiness Index which assigns an equal weight to Literacy, Homicide Rate and Infant Mortality.  The dots above the line represent those countries delivering better outcomes than you might expect given their income levels.  You can see that Cuba is punching way above its income weight. 

There may be the odd reader who thinks I am "cooking the books" to show the Cuban government in a good light.  For that reason I have also highlighted how Venezuela is experiencing much worse outcomes than you would expect given income levels in that country, despite the similarity with Cuba in terms of official ideology.