2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

Australia. Botswana has one of the highest sexual assault rates in the world while also being one of the largest AIDS epicentres in the world. Although, correlation does not always indicate causation, these sample of statistics correlates the relationship between the rate of sexual assault and HIV prevalence in certain regions.

Figure 5. Happiness Index Global Rank Australia, South Africa, Botswana 2021

(theglobaleconomy, 2021)

Factors that influence the happiness index include level of income, employment, social support and, particularly health. As represented in figure 5, Australia, South Africa, and Botswana rank 11 th , 89 th and 137 th in level of happiness respectively. This correlates to the HIV prevalence in these nations in which HIV prevalence is lower when the happiness index is higher. Therefore, this suggests that the prevalence of HIV impacts the health factor of the happiness index, thus lowering the average happiness of a nation (See, 2018). In addition, the problems of HIV may create financial problems such as the rise of unemployment, leading to a fall in average income in a nation. Therefore, this decreases the value of the happiness index.

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