Helsinki: India is ranked at a lowly 136, even below Pakistan, which is at 121,in an annual UN-sponsored index that ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon. Finland has been crowned the first for consecutive 5th years.
The latest list was completed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
War-scarred Afghanistan, already bottom of the table last year, saw its humanitarian crisis deepen since the Taliban returned to power last August following the pull-out of US-led troops.
Lebanon, which is facing an economic meltdown, fell to second from last on the index of 146 countries, just below Zimbabwe.
Afghanistan was ranked as the most unhappy country in the world.
Russia and Ukraine, currently at war with each other, have been ranked 80 and 98 respectively. The World Happiness Report 2022 rankings were compiled much before the Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on February 24.
The World Happiness Report ranks countries based on several factors such as real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
The World Happiness Index is based on two key ideas – happiness or life evaluation measured through opinion surveys and identifying key elements that determine well-being and life evaluation across countries.
As well as a personal sense of wellbeing, based on Gallup polls in each country, the happiness score takes account of GDP, social support, personal freedom and levels of corruption.
This year the authors also used data from social media to compare people’s emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found “strong increases in anxiety and sadness” in 18 countries but a fall in feelings of anger.
“The lesson of the World Happiness Report over the years is that social support, generosity to one another and honesty in government are crucial for wellbeing,” report co-author Jeffrey Sachs wrote. “World leaders should take heed.”
On Helsinki’s market square on Friday, next to the still-frozen Baltic Sea, Jukka Viitasaari said he was not surprised that Finns describe themselves as happy.
“Many things are undeniably good here — beautiful nature, we’re well-governed, lots of things are in order,” the business owner told AFP.
The country of vast forests and lakes is also known for its well-functioning public services, ubiquitous saunas, widespread trust in authority, and low levels of crime and inequality.
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