Up the index, down the culture

The headline GNH Index — the composite score derived from the 33 indicators across the nine domains of the GNH framework — has risen across all three comprehensive Centre for Bhutan Studies surveys: 0.743 in 2010, 0.756 in 2015, 0.781 in 2022. By the framework’s own measurement, the country has become happier.

Underneath the headline, the picture is sharper. The sub-indicators that the GNH framework was explicitly designed to protect — culture, conduct, health — moved down across the 2015–2022 window:

• Cultural participation (attendance and engagement with festivals, rituals, community ceremonies) — sufficiency fell −14.3%
• Driglam Namzha (the traditional code of etiquette and conduct that distinguishes Bhutanese public life) — sufficiency fell −12.2%
• Healthy days (self-reported days of good physical and mental health) — sufficiency fell −11.5%
• Native language use declined further across all age cohorts

The headline rose because the measurable economic domains — living standards, education access, per-capita income — climbed faster than the cultural domains fell, and the composite arithmetic carried the score up. The GNH Index is the country’s most rigorous self-measurement instrument; it is also a composite that can mask the divergence between its constituent domains.

The score climbing is itself a real finding. It is not the only one.