Once again, Denmark is the world’s happiest country. In fact the top five countries are European countries – Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland. The first non-European country, Canada comes in at the sixth place.
Burundi comes in as the last country on the list. Algeria comes in at no. 38 as the highest ranked African country while Nigeria is ranked No. 103.
The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The first report was published in 2012, the second in 2013, and the third in 2015. The World Happiness Report 2016 Update, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, was released today in Rome in advance of UN World Happiness Day, March 20th.
The happiness ranking was based on individual responses to a global poll conducted by Gallup.
The scholars found that three-quarters of the variation across countries could be explained by six variables: gross domestic product per capita (the rawest measure of a nation’s wealth); healthy years of life expectancy; social support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble); trust (as measured by perceived absence of corruption in government and business); perceived freedom to make life choices; and generosity (as measured by donations).
The report was prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, an international panel of social scientists that includes economists, psychologists and public health experts convened by theUnited Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.
