Thailand's gross domestic happiness index, measured on both Thais and expatriates, has increased due mainly to His Majesty the King's compassion and graciousness, according to an Abac poll released yesterday.

The survey, conducted by Assumption University from November 25 to December 23 on 4,571 Thais and 442 expatriates living in Bangkok and 20 other provinces, found that the main index increased from 4.86 in October to 5.74 in November.

The factors behind the increase were the compassion extended to them by the beloved monarch as well as by their own appreciation towards various benefits to the public generated by his Royal projects.

The main index measured on expatriates increased slightly to 7.14 in December, due mainly to their acknowledgement of His Majesty's compassion and graciousness extended to foreigners working and living in Thailand, the poll said.

The poll examined categories including health, mental health, communities and natural resources. All indexes were higher than five out of 10, ranging from the lowest at 5.19 to the highest at 7.34.

Negative issues in Thai society were also included and all measured under five: fairness and justice at 4.78; accommodation and surroundings at 4.33; good governance and effective NGOs' performances at 4.16 and market success in free global trade at 4.02.

Factors were the public's lack of trust in local administrative bodies (91.9 per cent), the public's inability to scrutinise the government and local bodies' performances (90.8 per cent), the lack of public participation in working out state policies (89.7 per cent) and the lack of interest by most public members in public service affairs (83 per cent).

People living in the Central region are the most unhappy, with an index of 5.36, while Bangkokians are second in the unhappiness stakes. Northerners are the happiest while Southerners and Northeasterners come second and third respectively.

As for the poor score on good governance, corruption and abuse of power by police accounts for 84.9 per cent while malfeasance by other civilian officials ranks second at 82.1 per cent.

The other reasons are different favours extended to public members based on their social status (79.3 per cent), the absence of channels for people to voice their grievances (66.2 per cent) and discrimination created by legal loopholes (61.4 per cent).

Pollster Noppadon Kannika said that since the public's appreciation for the Royal family's compassion contributed largely to the increase in the index figures, he suggested the government adopt these factors, especially the sufficiency economy advocated by the King, in their administrative guidelines next year in order to maintain the high index.