On June 19, the U.S. State Department released its findings for the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report. Released annually, the Trafficking in Persons report provides a comprehensive understanding on the state of human trafficking–both sex and exploitative labor–throughout the world.

Human trafficking is often referred to as 21st century slavery. Presently, an estimated 27 million people around the world are victims of human trafficking. But overall, there seems to be progress. As more people become aware of the issue, more is being done by governments, international organizations, grassroot organizations and individuals to combat human trafficking. Compared to last year, 29 countries, including Vietnam, were upgraded on the Trafficking in Persons report’s tiered list.

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Are you more likely to be happy living in Vietnam than in Switzerland, Norway, the U.S. and even Bhutan (the only country to measure “gross national happiness“)?

That’s what the results of this year’s Happy Planet Index (HPI) suggest. Designed by the New Economics Foundation (motto: “economics as if people and the planet mattered”), the HPI sets forth to be the “leading global measure of sustainable, well-being.” It ranks countries on how well they create the conditions for citizens to live long, happy, sustainable lives using three primary indicators: life expectancy, experienced well-being and Ecological footprint.

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The Global Peace Index, an initiative of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), recently released the 2012 Global Peace rankings. The Index compares 158 countries according to their “absence of violence” across 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators (see below). This year, Vietnam came in 34th, putting it in the first tier of the world’s most peaceful countries. Southeast Asian neighbors Malaysia (20th) and Singapore (23rd) are almost among the world’s 35 most peaceful countries.

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