According to the World Happiness Report 2018 released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations, Finland is the world’s happiest country out of 156 nations.
The report looked a six determining factors that support well-being, namely income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. In addition to assessing the 156 countries’ happiness levels, this year’s report also assessed 117 countries according to the happiness levels of their immigrants.
In second place is Norway, followed by Denmark in third position and Iceland and Switzerland in 4th and 5th place respectively. South Africa ranked at 105, with Mauritius ranking the highest on the continent and 55th in the world, followed by Libya in 65th place, Algeria in 84th and Morocco in 85th.
“The overall rankings of country happiness are based on the pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys from 2015-2017, and show both change and stability,” states the report, which added that Togo accounted for the “biggest gainer, moving up 17 places in the overall rankings from the last place position it held as recently as in the 2015 rankings,” according to the analysis of happiness changes from 2008-2010 to 2015-2015. Venezuela is listed as the biggest loser, “down 2.2 points on the 0 to 10 scale.”
Top 10 Countries in the Ranking of Happiness 2015–2017
1 Finland (7.632)
2 Norway (7.594)
3 Denmark (7.555)
4 Iceland (7.495)
5 Switzerland (7.487)
6 Netherlands (7.441)
7 Canada (7.328)
8 New Zealand (7.324)
9 Sweden (7.314)
10 Australia (7.272)
For the full report, visit World Happiness.
