on Wednesday March 16th the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a branch of the United Nations, released the 2016 World Happiness Report which ranks/rates the quality of living of 156 countries. To calculate scores for each country the UN analyses several factors including income inequality gap, poverty levels, crime rates, education scores, health reports, and government approval ratings.
Though there were some changes to the order of the top 5 countries in the world, the top 10 list as a whole remains completely unchanged from last year. Rounding out the bottom ten of the list are a number of countries for the most part located on the continent of Africa. Most notably in this group, Syria was ranked 155th and Afghanistan was raked 154 out of a possible 156 countries. According to the study, the only country with a lower quality of life than Syria is the country of Burundi.
The United States once again failed to crack to the world top 10 but did manage move up two spots from 15th in 2015 to 13th in 2016. One of the most interesting pieces of information to pull from this report is the fact that Israel ranks 11th in the world for quality of life compared to the Palestinian territories, literally hundreds of feet from Israel, which rank 108th.
20 Happiest Countries In The World (In Order)
Other Countries of Note
- Mexico: 21
- UK: 23
- Columbia: 31
- France: 32
- Saudi Arabia: 34
- Japan: 53
- Russia: 56
- Turkey: 78
- China: 83
- Pakistan: 92
- Greece: 99
- Iran: 105
- Iraq: 112
- Ethiopia: 115
- India: 118
- Egypt: 120
View Full Report From The United Nations: http://5c28efcb768db11c7204-4ffd2ff276d22135df4d1a53ae141422.r82.cf5.rackcdn.com/HR-V1_web.pdf
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Who decides what happiness is? How is it measured? It seems like this is a measurement of wealth, security and general living standard. I think this “Happiness Report” is an example of the capitalistic propaganda used to control people..
Lets talk about what happiness instead. I don’t want UN to tell me what happiness is. I am from Denmark, I moved away. For me there is not enough smiles, not enough laughs, not enough hugging, kisses, and warmth in Denmark. For me happiness is being present in every moment.
I completely agree that being free from hunger, war, and poverty is a part of happiness, but it is not all. Definitely not. What is a full stomach and freedom, if you feel no love.?
I really wish this article would have been more critical upon this report, instead of just keep delivering the same message UN is sending out..
Good points Joe. I agree.
Youre right!
Exactly my point, Joe. Cultural science prove that happiness has little to do with a nation’s wealth. It should be referred to surveys on SWB, the subjective well-being factor (no kidding, it does exists as a scientific metric) which suggests that people in the least developing countries such as Nigeria are the happiest. Also, Bhutan stopped measuring the GDP. Instead, it takes surveys on the Gross National Happiness stating that the rich are not necessarily happy but the happy feel rich.
Srsly, why do people and websites still post about this… It doesn’t freaking matter and frankly i’m tired of seeing “denmark is the happiest country in world” post over and over again.. I’m danish and I love my country but we actually got alot of problems just like any other country on this planet has. So srsly chill on the “happiest country articles” pls…