World Happiness Report: 2018 by SAMVEG IAS
Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to an annual survey issued on Wednesday that found Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.
- Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot.
- The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.
- The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year.
THEME OF 2018……The World Happiness Report measures “subjective well-being” – how happy people feel they are, and why.
Burundi came bottom in the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as
GDP per capita,
social support,
healthy life expectancy,
social freedom,
generosity and
absence of corruption.
India vs SAARCIndians are unhappier than most of their South Asian neighbours including the citizens of Pakistan, according to the World Happiness Report 2018.Ranking at 133rd position, India witnessed a drop of 11 places from last year’s 122nd rank.
India has been consistently falling in the happiness index since 2014. In the same report released in 2015, India was ranked 117 out of 158 nations.
But Indians can rejoice about the fact that Pakistanis along with Afghans have been ranked among the least accepting people in the world.
On the other hand, terror-ravaged Pakistan is ranked at 75 compared to its 2017 ranking of 80.
Nepal, which is described as the ‘poorest-of-poor’ among poor nations also fared better in the ‘joy’ report than India. Nepal was ranked at 101 – down by 2 positions from 2017 report.Apart from Pakistan and Nepal, the other SAARC nations that ranked higher than India were Bhutan at 97, Bangladesh at 115 while Sri Lanka was ranked 116. This year’s main focus apart from usual rankings was on migration within and between countries.
Country Happiness score Dystopia (1.92) + residual GDP per capita Social support Healthy life expectancy Freedom to make life choices Generosity Perception of corruption India 4.190 1.432 0.721 0.747 0.485 0.539 0.172 0.093 Pakistan 5.472 2.923 0.652 0.810 0.424 0.334 0.216 0.113 Sri Lanka 4.471 0.624 0.918 1.314 0.672 0.585 0.307 0.050 Nepal 4.880 1.782 0.425 1.228 0.539 0.526 0.302 0.078 Bangladesh 4.500 1.664 0.532 0.850 0.579 0.580 0.153 0.144 Bhutan 5.082 1.348 0.796 1.335 0.527 0.541 0.364 0.171 Afghanistan 3.632 2.196 0.332 0.537 0.255 0.085 0.191 0.036
ABOUT THE INSTITUTION..
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) engages scientists, engineers, business and civil society leaders, and development practitioners for evidence based problem solving. It promotes solutions initiatives that demonstrate the potential of technical and business innovation to support sustainable development.
The Global Happiness Council (GHC) is a new global network of leading academic specialists in happiness and key practitioners in areas ranging from psychology, economics, urban planning, civil society, business and government. The GHC identifies best practices at the national and local levels to encourage advancement of the causes of happiness and well-being.
The World Happiness Report was written by a group of independent experts acting in their personal capacities. Any views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization, agency or program of the United Nations.
