The World Happiness Report 2017 was released on Monday and unfortunately, India slipped four ranks from its previous rank. What hurts more is that the country which is said to be promoting terrorism in India, i.e., Pakistan, is also happier than India with the 80th rank.
India has secured the 122nd rank out of the total 155 countries in World Happiness Report 2017. The report was released amid the celebrations of the International Day of Happiness at United Nations.
Among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, only Afghanistan was behind India with the ranking of 141 while Nepal was at 99, Sri Lanka at 120, Bangladesh at 110 and Bhutan at 97; however, Maldives was not included in this list.
The nation which has attained the top spot in this report is Norway. Yes, the country has moved up four ranks from its previous rank. Last year’s top ranker Denmark came second this time while the other happy nations in top 5 are Iceland, Switzerland and Finland.
Happiness can’t be measured in just monetary and materialistic terms; experts are of the opinion that emotional well-being should also be considered, especially in the USA. In fact, in 2013, a recommendation was made by the National Academy of Sciences that questions about happiness should also be included in the federal surveys which are basically about income and expenses, health, housing, etc.
The top ten nations in the report are rich developed countries; however, the report also says that money is not the only factor responsible for happiness. The report further adds that the differences in the happiness levels are also a result of, “differences in mental health, physical health and personal relationships: the biggest single source of misery is mental illness. Income differences matter more in poorer countries, but even their mental illness is a major source of misery.”
One more nation that has grown a lot in economical terms is China but its citizens are not as happy as they used to be 25 years ago.
The United States of America has gone down to the 14th rank because of increasing corruption and reducing social support while Nordic countries have worked hard on these two factors and made their citizens happier.
As per Meik Wiking, CEO of Happiness Research Institute, Copenhagen, “What works in the Nordic countries is a sense of community and understanding in the common good.” HRI wasn’t a part of the global study.
Here’s list of top 10 happiest countries in the world:-
Here’s list of top 10 saddest countries in the world:-
Basically the rankings depend on the GDP per person, life expectancy and health and other four factors from surveys conducted globally. People give scores in those surveys from 1 to 10 on the basis of social support, personal freedom, corruption and generosity.
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