Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the eighth year in a row.
The annual UN-sponsored World Happiness Report ranks 147 countries based on survey results collected by polling company Gallup.
The report noted several Western countries have dropped from their usual spots in the top 20.
Australia has slipped out of the top 10 this year, falling one rank to 11th.
World Happiness Report
The report collates data from the Gallup World Poll, an annual survey of people from more than 140 countries.
Around 1,000 participants per country are asked to numerically score their quality of life.
Each year’s rankings are then based on rolling three-year average survey results.
The survey analyses six factors that influence happiness: personal wealth, social support, life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.
Happiest
Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden have been the top four happiest countries, in that order, for two consecutive years.
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This year’s report saw Costa Rica and Mexico enter the top 10 for the first time, at #6 and #10 respectively.
The report attributes higher levels of happiness to a sense of freedom, strong social networks, faith in humanity, and bigger household size.
Unhappiness
Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest country for the fourth year in a row.
The report found “life is especially difficult for Afghan women” under Taliban rule.
West African nation Sierra Leone was the second unhappiest country, followed by Lebanon in third-last place.
The report also found that Western nations are now less happy than they were between 2005 and 2010, with the U.S. and Canada’s rankings declining sharply.
Comments
Report editor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, said this year’s findings highlight the influence of non-traditional factors on happiness.
“It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected. In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing,” De Neve said.
