World Happiness Report: Finland tops again; US not in top 20; India at 126

The World Happiness Report, sponsored and released by the United Nations Organisation on Wednesday (March 20), has put Finland on top of the happiest countries in the world for the seventh straight year.

While India fared poorly on the happiness index for the second straight year ranking at 126, the United States and Germany couldn’t make it to the top 20 countries, slipping to the 23rd and 24th positions, respectively, on the index. This is the first time since the UN began publishing it happiness report a decade ago that powerful countries like the United States and Germany have lost their ranking among the top 20 nations on the index.

Apart from Finland, other Nordic countries which retained their position among the top 10 cheerful nations are Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland in that order.

Costa Rica and Kuwait, according to the report, entered the top 20 list, securing, respectively, 12th and 13th positions in terms of happiness among their citizens.

Another remarkable development, the report said, is that none of the largest countries in terms of population could make it to the top 10 happiest countries. “In the top 10 countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations over 30 million," the UN report said.

The report noted that East European countries like Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia registered substantial increase in happiness, whereas strife-torn countries like Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan saw the sharpest decline.

Why are the Finnish happiest?

The Finns attributed factors like their close connection to nature and a healthy work–life balance as key contributors to their life satisfaction and happiness. In addition, a strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption and free healthcare and education were other factors which contributed to their happiness.

"Finnish society is permeated by a sense of trust, freedom, and high level of autonomy," AFP quoted Jennifer De Paola, a happiness researcher at the University of Helsinki, as saying. Elaborating further De Paola said there is fundamental difference between how Finns and Americans view what a successful life is. While Finns may have "more attainable understanding of what a successful life is", the Americans equate success with financial gain.

The UN report also analysed generational differences and found the younger generation to be happier compared to their older peers in most of the world’s region.

Central and eastern Europe, for instance, saw the level of happiness among the citizenry increase substantially among all age groups. Western Europe also reported the same level of happiness.

However, happiness among age groups below 30 witnessed a drastic decline in North America, Australia and New Zealand compared to the older generation which was happier than the younger ones.

A ‘worrying trend’

The report also underlined happiness vis-à-vis inequality and found happiness inequality to have increased across regions, which the report said is a “worrying trend”.

According to the UN report, happiness inequality has seen a distinct rise among the old and Sub-Saharan Africa where inequalities in terms of "income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the presence of supportive social environments at the family, community and national levels" prevail.

Of the 143 countries surveyed, Afghanistan stayed at the bottom of the happiness index for obvious reasons.

The UN ranking assess countries taking into account both individual citizens' self-assessed evaluation of life satisfaction and factors like per capita GDP, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption to measure the happiness quotient among the citizenry.