World Happiness Report

Map showing happiness of countries by their score according to the 2018 World Happiness Report.

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network which contains rankings of national happiness and analysis of the data from various perspectives.[1] The World Happiness Report is edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs. The 2017 edition added three associate editors; Jan-Emmanuel De Neve,[2] Haifang Huang,[3] and Shun Wang.[4] Authors of chapters include Richard Easterlin, Edward F. Diener, Martine Durand,[5] Nicole Fortin,[6] Jon Hall,[7] Valerie Møller,[8] and many others.

In July 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 65/309 Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development[9] inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use the data to help guide public policy. On April 2, 2012, this was followed by the first UN High Level Meeting called Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,[10] which was chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, a nation that adopted gross national happiness instead of gross domestic product as their main development indicator.[11]

The first World Happiness Report was released on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the UN High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,[12] drawing international attention.[13] The report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications highlighted by case studies. In 2013, the second World Happiness Report was issued, and since then has been issued on an annual basis with the exception of 2014.[14] The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll. Each annual report is available to the public to download on the World Happiness Report website.[15]

In the reports, experts in fields including economics, psychology, survey analysis, and national statistics, describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations, and other topics. Each report is organized by chapters that delve deeper into issues relating to happiness, including mental illness, the objective benefits of happiness, the importance of ethics, policy implications, and links with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) approach to measuring subjective well-being and other international and national efforts.

As of March 2018, Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world.[16][17]

Annual Report Topics

World Happiness Reports were issued in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 (an update), 2017 and 2018. In addition to ranking countries happiness and well-being levels, each report has contributing authors and most focus on a subject. The data used to rank countries in each report is drawn from the Gallup World Poll,[18] as well as other sources such as the World Values Survey, in some of the reports. The Gallup World Poll questionnaire[19] measures 14 areas within its core questions: (1) business & economic, (2) citizen engagement, (3) communications & technology, (4) diversity (social issues), (5) education & families, (6) emotions (well-being), (7) environment & energy, (8) food & shelter, (9) government and politics, (10) law & order (safety), (11) health, (12) religion and ethics, (13) transportation, and (14) work.

2018 World Happiness Report

The 2018 reiteration was released on 14 March and focused on the relation between happiness and migration. As per 2018 Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world,[20] with Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland holding the next top positions. The World Happiness Report 2018 ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants. The main focus of this year’s report, in addition to its usual ranking of the levels and changes in happiness around the world, is on migration within and between countries. 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. Four countries have held the top spot in the last four reports: Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland. All the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. Among the top countries, differences are small enough that year-to-year changes in the rankings are to be expected.

The analysis of happiness changes from 2008–2015 shows Togo as the biggest gainer, moving up 17 places in the overall rankings from 2015. The biggest loser is Venezuela, down 2.2 points. Five of the report’s seven chapters deal primarily with migration, as summarized in Chapter 1. For both domestic and international migrants, the report studies the happiness of those migrants and their host communities, and also of those in the countryside or in the country of origin. The results are generally positive. Perhaps the most striking finding of the whole report is that a ranking of countries according to the happiness of their immigrant populations is almost exactly the same as for the rest of the population. The immigrant happiness rankings are based on the full span of Gallup data from 2005 to 2017, sufficient to have 117 countries with more than 100 immigrant respondents. The ten happiest countries in the overall rankings also make up ten of the top eleven spots in the ranking of immigrant happiness. Finland is at the top of both rankings in this report, with the happiest immigrants, and the happiest population in general. While convergence to local happiness levels is quite rapid, it is not complete, as there is a ‘footprint’ effect based on the happiness in each source country. This effect ranges from 10% to 25%. This footprint effect explains why immigrant happiness is less than that of the locals in the happiest countries, while being greater in the least happy countries.

2016 World Happiness Report

Descriptions

The 2016 World Happiness Report -Rome Addition was issued in two parts as an update. Part one had four chapters: (1) Setting the Stage, (2) The Distribution of World Happiness, (3) Promoting Secular Ethics, and (4) Happiness and Sustainable Development: Concepts and Evidence. Part two has six chapters: (1) Inside the Life Satisfaction Blackbox, (2) Human Flourishing, the Common Good, and Catholic Social Teaching, (3) The Challenges of Public Happiness: An Historical-Methodological Reconstruction, (4) The Geography of Parenthood and Well-Being: Do Children Make Us Happy, Where and Why?, and (5) Multidimensional Well-Being in Contemporary Europe: An Analysis of the Use of a Self-Organizing Map Applied to Share Data.

Chapter 1, Setting the Stage is written by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs. This chapter briefly surveys the happiness movement (“Increasingly, happiness is considered to be the proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy.”) gives an overview of the 2016 reports and synopsis of both parts of the 2016 Update Rome Addition.

Chapter 2, The Distribution of World Happiness is written by John F. Helliwell, Hailing Huang, and Shun Wang. This chapter reports happiness levels of countries and proposes the use of inequalities of happiness among individuals as a better measure for inequality than income inequality, and that all people in a population fare better in terms of happiness when there is less inequality in happiness in their region. It includes data from the World Health Organization and World Development Indicators, as well as Gallup World Poll. It debunks the notion that people rapidly adapt to changes in life circumstances and quickly return to an initial life satisfaction baseline, finding instead that changes in life circumstances such as government policies, major life events (unemployment, major disability) and immigration change people’s baseline life satisfaction levels. This chapter also addresses the measure for affect (feelings), finding that positive affect (happiness, laughter, enjoyment) has much “large and highly significant impact” on life satisfaction than negative affect (worry, sadness, anger). The chapter also examines differences in happiness levels explained by the factors of (1) social support, (2) income, (3) healthy life, (4) trust in government and business, (5) perceived freedom to make life decisions and (6) generosity.

Chapter 3, Promoting Secular Ethics is written by Richard Layard, This chapter argues for a revival of an ethical life and world, harkening to times when religious organizations were a dominant force. It calls on secular non-profit organizations to promote “ethical living in a way that provides inspiration, uplift, joy and mutual respect”, and gives examples of implementation by a non-profit founded by Richard Layard,[21] the chapter author, Action for Happiness, which offers online information from positive psychology and Buddhist teachings.

Chapter 4, Happiness and Sustainable Development: Concepts and Evidence is written by Jeffrey Sachs. This chapter identifies ways that sustainable development indicators (economic, social and environmental factors) can be used to explain variations in happiness. It concludes with a report about an appeal to include subjective well-being indicators into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Part Two 2016 Special Rome Edition was edited by Jeffrey Sacks, Leonardo Becchetti and Anthony Arnett.

Chapter 1, Inside the Life Satisfaction Blackbox is written by Leonardo Becchetti, Luisa Carrado,[22] and Paolo Sama. This chapter proposes using quality of life measurements (a broader range of variables that life evaluation) in lieu of or in addition to overall life evaluations in future World Happiness Reports.

Chapter 2, Human Flourishing, the Common Good, and Catholic Social Teaching is written by Anthony Annett. This chapter contains explanations for three theories: (1) It is human nature to broadly define happiness and understand the connection between happiness and the common good, (2) that the current understanding of individuality is stripped of ties to the common good, and (3) that there is a need to restore the common good as central value for society. The chapter also proposes Catholic school teachings as a model for restoring the common good as a dominant value.

Chapter 3, The Challenges of Public Happiness: An Historical-Methodological Reconstruction is written by Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zemagni. This chapter contemplates Aristotelian concepts of happiness and virtue as they pertain to and support the findings in the World Happiness Reports regarding the impact of social support, trust in government, and equality of happiness.

Chapter 4, The Geography of Parenthood and Well-Being. Do Children Make Us Happy, Where and Why? is written by Luca Stanca.[23] This chapter examines other research findings that children do not add happiness to parents. Using data from the World Values Survey, it finds that, with the exception of widowed parents, having children has a negative effect on life satisfaction for parents in 2/3 of the 105 countries studied, with parents in richer countries suffering more. Once parents are old, life satisfaction increases. The chapter concludes that “existing evidence is not conclusive” and a statement that the causes for the low life satisfaction levels may be that for richer countries, having children is valued less, and in poorer countries, people suffer in financial and time costs when they have children.

Chapter 5, Multidimensional Well-Being in Contemporary Europe: Analysis of the Use of Self-Organizing Map Allied to SHARE Data is written by Mario Lucchini, Luca Crivelli[24] and Sara della Bella. This chapter contains a study of well-being data from older European adults. It finds that this chapter’s study results were consistent with the World Happiness Report 2016 update: positive affect (feelings) have a stronger impact on a person’s satisfaction with life than do negative affect (feelings).

2015 World Happiness Report

Descriptions

The 2015 World Happiness Report has eight chapters: (1) Setting the Stage, (2) The Geography of World Happiness, (3) How Does Subjective Well-being Vary Around the World by Gender and Age?, (4) How to Make Policy When Happiness is the Goal, (5) Neuroscience of Happiness, (6) Healthy Young Minds Transforming the Mental Health of Children, (7) Human Values, Civil Economy, and Subjective Well-being, and (8) Investing in Social Capital.

Chapter 1, Setting the Stage is written by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs. This chapter celebrates the success of the happiness movement (“Happiness is increasingly considered a proper means of social progress and public policy.”), citing the OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being, a referendum in the EU requiring member nations to measure happiness, and the success of the World Happiness reports (with readership at about 1.5 million), and the adoption of happiness by the government of the United Arab Emirates, and other areas. It sets an aspiration of the inclusion of subjective well-being into the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (not fulfilled), and outlines the 2015 report. It also address the use of the term Happiness, identifying the cons (narrowness of the term, breath of the term, flakiness), and defining the use of the term for the reasons that the 2011 UN General Assembly Resolution 65/309 Happiness Towards A Holistic Approach to Development[25] and April 2012 UN High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm,[26] Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness[27] philosophy, the term’s “convening and attention attracting power,” and the asset in a “double usage of happiness” as an emotional report and life evaluation.

Chapter 2, The Geography of Happiness is written by John F. Helliwell, Hailing Huang and Shun Wang. This chapter reports the happiness of nations measured by life evaluations. It includes color coded maps and an analysis of six factors the account for the differences: (1) social support in terms of someone to count on in times of need, (2) GDP per capita (income), (3) life expectancy (in terms of healthy years), (4) sense of corruption in government and business (trust), (5) perceived freedom to make life decisions, and (6) generosity. The first three factors were found to have the biggest impact on a population’s happiness. Crisis (natural disasters and economic crisis) the quality of governance, and social support were found to be the key drivers for changes in national happiness levels, with the happiness of nations undergoing a crisis in which people have a strong sense of social support falling less than nations where people do not have a strong sense of social support.

Chapter 3, How Does Subjective Well-being Vary Around the Globe by Gender and Age? is written by Nicole Fortin, John F. Helliwell and Shun Wang. This chapter uses data for 12 experiences: happiness (the emotion), smiling or laughing, enjoyment, feeling safe at night, feeling well rested, and feeling interested, as well as anger, worry, sadness, depression, stress and pain to examine differences by gender and age. Findings reported include that there is not a lot of difference in life evaluations between men and women across nations or within ages in a nation (women have slightly higher life evaluations than men: 0.09 on a ten-point scale). It reports that overall happiness falls into a U shape with age on the x axis and happiness on the y, with the low point being middle age (45-50) for most nations (in some happiness does not go up much in later life, so the shape is more of a downhill slide), and that the U shape holds for feeling well rested in all regions. If finds that that men generally feel safer at night than women but, when comparing countries, people in Latin America have the lowest sense of safety at night, while people in East Asia and Western Europe have the highest sense of safety at night. It also finds that as women age their sense of happiness declines and stress increases but worry decreases, as all people age their laughter, enjoyment and finding something of interest also declines, that anger is felt everywhere almost equally by men and women, stress peaks in the Middle Ages, and women experience depression more than men. It finds that where older people are happier, there is a sense of social support, freedom to make life choices and generosity (and income does not factor in as heavily as these three factors).

Chapter 4, How to Make Policy When Happiness is the Goal is written by Richard Layard and Gus O’Donnell. This chapter advocates for a “new form of cost-benefit analysis” for government expenditures in which a “critical level of extra happiness” yielded by a project is established. It contemplates the prioritization of increasing happiness of the happy vs. reducing misery of the miserable, as well as the issues of discount rate (weight) for the happiness of future generations. It includes a technical annex with equations for calculating the maximization for happiness in public expenditure, tax policy, regulations, the distribution of happiness and a discount rate.

Chapter 5, Neuroscience of Happiness is written by Richard J. Dawson and Brianna S. Schuyler. This chapter reports on research in brain science and happiness, identifying four aspects that account for happiness: (1) sustained positive emotion, (2) recovery of negative emotion (resilience), (3) empathy, altruism and pro-social behavior, and (4) mindfulness (mind-wandering/affective sickness). It concludes that the brain’s elasticity indicates that one can change one’s sense of happiness and life satisfaction (separate but overlapping positive consequences) levels by experiencing and practicing mindfulness, kindness, and generosity; and calls for more research on these topics.

Chapter 6, Healthy Young Minds: Transforming the Mental Health of Children is written by Richard Layard and Ann Hagell.[28] This chapter identifies emotional development as of primary importance, (compared to academic and behavioral factors) in a child’s development and determination of whether a child will be a happy and well-functioning adult. It then focuses on the issue of mental illness in children, citing the statistic that while worldwide 10% of the world's children (approximately 200 million) suffer from diagnosable mental health problems, even in the richest nations, only one quarter of these children of them are in treatment. It identifies the action steps to treating children with mental health problems: local community-lead child well-being programs, training health care professions to identify mental health problems in children, parity of esteem for mental and physical problems and treatment, access to evidence-based mental health treatment for families and children, promotion of well-being in schools with well-being codes that inform the organizational behavior of schools, training teachers to identify mental health in children, teachings of life skills, measuring of children’s well-being by schools, development of free apps available internationally to treat mental illness in teens, and inclusion of mental health with the goal of physical health in the Sustainable Development goals. The chapter lists the benefits of treating children’s mental health: improved educational performance, reduction in youth crimes, improved earnings and employment in adulthood, and better parenting of the next generation.

Chapter 7, Human Values, Civil Economy and Subjective Well-being is written by Leonardo Bechhetti,[29] Luigino Bruni and Stefano Zamagni. This chapter begins with a critique of the field of economics ("Economics today looks like physics before the discovery of electrons"), identifying reductionism in which humans are conceived of as 100% self-interested individuals (economic reductionism), profit maximization is prioritized over all other interests (corporate reductionism), and societal values are narrowly identified with GDP and ignore environmental, cultural, spiritual and relational aspects (value reductionism). The chapter them focuses on a theoretical approach termed "Civil Economy paradigm", and research about it demonstrating that going beyond reductionism leads to greater socialization for people and communities, and a rise in priority of the values of reciprocity, friendship, trustworthiness, and benevolence. It makes the argument that positive social relationships (trust, benevolence, shared social identities) yield happiness and positive economic outcomes. It ends with recommendations for move from the dominant model of elite-competitive democracy to a participatory/deliberative model of democracy with bottom-up political and economic participation and incentives for non-selfish actions (altruistic people) and corporations with wider goals than pure profit (ethical and environmentally responsible corporations).

Chapter 8, Investing in Social Capital is written by Jeffrey Sachs. This chapter focuses on “pro-sociality” (“individuals making decisions for the common good that may conflict with short-run egoistic incentives”). It identifies pro-social behaviors: honesty, benevolence, cooperation and trustworthiness. It recommends investment in social capital through education, moral instruction, professional codes of conduct, public censure and condemnation of violators of public trust, and public policies to narrow income inequalities for countries where there is generalized distrust of government and business, pervasive corruption and lawless behavior (such as tax evasion).

2013 World Happiness Report

Descriptions

The 2013 World Happiness Report has eight chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) World Happiness: Trends, Explanations and Distribution, (3) Mental Illness and Unhappiness, (4) The Objective Benefits of Subjective Well-being, (5) Restoring Virtue Ethics in the Quest for Happiness, (6) Using Well-being as a Guide to Policy, (7) The OECD Approach to Measuring Subjective Well-being, and (8) From Capabilities to Contentment: Testing the Links between Human Development and Life Satisfaction.

Chapter 1, Introduction is written by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs. It synopsizes the chapters and gives a discussion of the term happiness.

Chapter 2, World Happiness: Trends, Explanations and Distributions is written by John F. Helliwell and Shun Wang. It provides ratings among countries and regions for satisfaction with life using the Cantril Ladder, positive and negative affect (emotions), and log of GDP per capita, years of healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, perceptions of corruption, prevalence of generosity, and freedom to make life choices.

Chapter 3, Mental Illness and Unhappiness is written by Richard Layard, Dan Chisholm, Vikram Patel, and Shekhar Saxel. It identifies the far ranging prevalence of mental illness around the world (10% of the world's population at one time) and provides the evidence showing that "mental illness is a highly influential - and...the single biggest - determinant of misery." It concludes with examples of interventions implemented by countries around the world.

Chapter 4, The Objective Benefits of Subjective Well-being is written by Jan-Emmanuel de Neve, Ed Diener, Louis Tay and Cody Xuereb. It provides an explanation of the benefits of subjective well-being (happiness) on health & longevity, income, productivity & organizational behavior, and individual & social behavior. It touches on the role of happiness in human evolution through rewarding behaviors that increase evolutionary success and beneficial to survival.

Chapter 5, Restoring Virtue Ethics in the Quest for Happiness is written by Jeffrey Sachs. It argues that "a renewed focus on the role of ethics, and in particular of virtuous behavior, in happiness could lead us to new and effective strategies for raising individual, national and global well-being," looking to the eightfold noble path (the teachings of the dharma handed down in the Buddhist tradition that encompass wise view/understanding, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, and effort, concentration and mindfulness), Aristotelian philosophy (people are social animals, "with individual happiness secured only within a political community...[which] should organize its institutions to promote virtuous behavior), and Christian doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas ("placing happiness in the context of servicing God's will"). It gives an explanation of the evolution of the field of economics up t the "failures of hyper-commercialism" and suggests an antidote based on four global ethical values: (1) non-violence and respect for life, (2) justice and solidarity, (3) honesty and tolerance, and (4) mutual esteem and partnership.

Chapter 6, Using Well-being as Guide to Public Policy is written by Gus O'Donnell. This chapter gives a status report on the issues governments grapple with in adopting well-being and happiness measures and goals for policy, from understanding the data or establishing whether a specific policy improves well-being, to figuring out how to "incorporate well-being into standard policy making." It provides examples of efforts to measure happiness and well-being from Bhutan, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and cities and communities in the USA, Canada, Australia and Tasmania. It identifies the key policy areas of health, transport and education for policy makers to focus on and includes discussions about interpersonal comparability (concentrating on "getting people out of misery" instead of making happy people happier), discount rate (do we invest more in happiness for people today or in the future?) and putting a monetary value on happiness for policy trade off decisions (e.g. If "a 10% reduction in noise increase SWB by one unit, then we can infer that a 10% reduction is "worth" $1,000" when $1,000 would increase a person's SWB by one unit).

Chapter 7, The OECD Approach to Measuring Subjective Well-being is written by Martine Durand and Conal Smith. This chapter was written the same year the OECD issued its Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being,[30] and is a synopsis of such. It includes a definition for subjective well-being: life evaluation (a person's reflection on their life and life circumstances), affect (positive and negative emotions) and eudaimonia; core measures, a discussion on data collection processes, survey and sample design, other aspects of using subjective well-being metrics, and ideas on how policy-makers can use subjective well-being data. It surveys the status of wealthy countries subjective well-being data collection process, and identifies future directions of experimentation and better income measures, citing the Easterlin Paradox as the basis for this call.

Chapter 8, From Capabilities to Contentment: Testing the Links between Human Development and Life Satisfaction is written by Jon Hall.[31] This chapter explains the components of human development using objective metrics: (1) education, health and command over income and nutrition resources, (2) participation and freedom, (3) human security, (4) equity, and (5) sustainability; key findings of the Human Development Index (HDI) ("weak relationship between economic growth and changes in health and education" as well as life expectancy), and examines the relationship between the HDI and happiness, finding that (1) components of the HDI "correlate strongly with better life evaluations," and (2) there is a strong relationship between life evaluation and the "non-income HDI." It contemplates measurement of conditions of life beyond the HDI that are important to well-being: (1) better working conditions, (2) security against crime and physical violence, (3) participation in economic and political activities, (4) freedom and (5) inequality. The concludes with the statements that the HDI and SWB have similar approaches and importantly connected, with the two disciplines offering alternative and complementary views of development.

2012 World Happiness Report

Descriptions

The 2012 World Happiness Report was issued at the UN High Level Meeting Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm[32] by editors John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs. Part one has an introduction (chapter 1) and three chapters: (2) the State of World Happiness, (3) Causes of Happiness and Misery, Some Policy Implications. Part two has three chapters, each a case study, of Bhutan, the United Kingdom Office of National Statistics, and the OECD.

Chapter 1, The Introduction is by Jeffrey Sachs and references Buddha and Aristotle, identifies today's era as the anthropocene, and identifies the reasons GDP is not a sufficient measure to guide governments and society.

Chapter 2, The State of World Happiness, is written by John F. Helliwell and Shun Wang,[33] and contains a discussion of subjective well-being measures that ranges from the validity of subjective well-being measures to the seriousness of happiness, happiness set points and cultural comparisons, and it includes data from the Gallup World Poll, European Social Survey, and the World Values Survey.[34]

Chapter 3, The Causes of Happiness and Misery is written by Richard Layard, Andrew Clark,[35] and Claudia Senik,[36] and contemplates research on the impact on happiness of the external factors of income, work, community and governance, values and religion, as well as the internal factors of mental health, physical health, family experience, education, and gender and age.

Chapter 4, Some Policy Implications, written by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs, calls for a greater understanding on how governments can measure happiness, the determinants of happiness, and use of happiness data and findings about determinants for policy purposes. It also highlights the role of GDP ("GDP is important but not all that is important") as a guide to policy makers, the importance that policy makers should place on providing opportunities for employment; the role of happiness in policy making ("Making happiness an objective of governments would not therefore lead to the “servile society,” and indeed quite the contrary...Happiness comes from an opportunity to mold one’s own future, and thus depends on a robust level of freedom."); the role of values and religion ("In well-functioning societies there is widespread support for the universal value that we should treat others as we would like them to treat us. We need to cultivate social norms so that the rich and powerful are never given a feeling of impunity vis-à-vis the rest of society."); calls for wider access to psychological therapies in a section on mental health citing the fact that one third of all families are affected by mental illness; identifies improvements in physical health as "probably the single most important factor that has improved human happiness" and calls out the rich-poor gap in health care between rich and poor countries; calls on workplace and governmental policies that encourage work-life balance and reduce stress, including family support and child care; and states that "Universal access to education is widely judged to be a basic human right..." The chapter concludes with a philosophical discussion.

Chapter 5, Case Study: Bhutan Gross National Happiness and the GNH Index is written by Karma Ura,[37] Sabine Alkire,[38] and Tsoki Zangmo. It gives a short history of the development of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) concept in Bhutan, and an explanation of the GNH index, data collection and data analysis process, including the rating methodology to determine if an individual experiences happiness sufficiency levels, as well as the policy and lifestyle implications

Chapter 6, Case Study: ONS Measuring Subjective Well-being: The UK Office of National Statistics Experience is written by Stephen Hicks. It covers the basis for the creation of the Measuring National Well-being Programme[39] in the UK's Office of National Statistics[40] (ONS), and the development of their methodology for measuring well-being.

Chapter 5, Case Study OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being is an explanation about the process and rationale the OECD was undertaking to develop its Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being,[41] which it issued in 2013.

International rankings

Data is collected from people in over 150 countries. Each variable measured reveals a populated-weighted average score on a scale running from 0 to 10 that is tracked over time and compared against other countries. These variables currently include: real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. Each country is also compared against a hypothetical nation called Dystopia. Dystopia represents the lowest national averages for each key variable and is, along with residual error, used as a regression benchmark.

2018 report

As per the 2018 Happiness Index, Finland is the happiest country in the world. Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland hold the next top positions. The report was published on 14 March 2018 by UN. The full report can be read at 2018 Report. The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The World Happiness Report 2018, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants, was released on March 14th at a launch event at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican.

Overall Rank Country Score GDP per capita Social support Healthy life expectancy Freedom to make life choices Generosity Perceptions of corruption
1 Finland7.6321.3051.5920.8740.6810.1920.393
2 Norway7.5941.4561.5820.8610.6860.2860.340
3 Denmark7.5551.3511.5900.8680.6830.2840.408
4 Iceland7.4951.3431.6440.9140.6770.3530.138
5  Switzerland7.4871.4201.5490.9270.6600.2560.357
6 Netherlands7.4411.3611.4880.8780.6380.3330.295
7 Canada7.3281.3301.5320.8960.6530.3210.291
8 New Zealand7.3241.2681.6010.8760.6690.3650.389
9 Sweden7.3141.3551.5010.9130.6590.2850.383
10 Australia7.2721.3401.5730.9100.6470.3610.302
11 Israel7.1901.2441.4330.8880.4640.2620.082
12 Austria7.1391.3411.5040.8910.6170.2420.224
13 Costa Rica7.0721.0101.4590.8170.6320.1430.101
14 Ireland6.9771.4481.5830.8760.6140.3070.306
15 Germany6.9651.3401.4740.8610.5860.2730.280
16 Belgium6.9271.3241.4830.8940.5830.1880.240
17 Luxembourg6.9101.5761.5200.8960.6320.1960.321
18 United States6.8861.3981.4710.8190.5470.2910.133
19 United Kingdom6.8141.3011.5590.8830.5330.3540.272
20 United Arab Emirates6.7742.0960.7760.6700.2840.186N/A
21 Czech Republic6.7111.2331.4890.8540.5430.0640.034
22 Malta6.6271.2701.5250.8840.6450.3760.142
23 France6.4891.2931.4660.9080.5200.0980.176
24 Mexico6.4881.0381.2520.7610.4790.0690.095
25 Chile6.4761.1311.3310.8080.4310.1970.061
26 Taiwan6.4411.3651.4360.8570.4180.1510.078
27 Panama6.4301.1121.4380.7590.5970.1250.063
28 Brazil6.4190.9861.4740.6750.4930.1100.088
29 Argentina6.3881.0731.4680.7440.5700.0620.054
30 Guatemala6.3820.7811.2680.6080.6040.1790.071
31 Uruguay6.3791.0931.4590.7710.6250.1300.155
32 Qatar6.3741.6491.3030.7480.6540.2560.171
33 Saudi Arabia6.3711.3791.3310.6330.5090.0980.127
34 Singapore6.3431.5291.4511.0080.6310.2610.457
35 Malaysia6.3221.1611.2580.6690.3560.3110.059
36 Spain6.3101.2511.5380.9650.4490.1420.074
37 Colombia6.2600.9601.4390.6350.5310.0990.039
38 Trinidad & Tobago6.1921.2231.4920.5640.5750.1710.019
39 Slovakia6.1731.2101.5370.7760.3540.1180.014
40 El Salvador6.1670.8061.2310.6390.4610.0650.082
41 Nicaragua6.1410.6681.3190.7000.5270.2080.128
42 Poland6.1231.1761.4480.7810.5460.1080.064
43 Bahrain6.1051.3381.3660.6980.5940.2430.123
44 Uzbekistan6.0960.7191.5840.6050.7240.3280.259
45 Kuwait6.0831.4741.3010.6750.5540.1670.106
46 Thailand6.0721.0161.4170.7070.6370.3640.029
47 Italy6.0001.2641.5010.9460.2810.1370.028
48 Ecuador5.9730.8891.3300.7360.5560.1140.120
49 Belize5.9560.8071.1010.4740.5930.1830.089
50 Lithuania5.9521.1971.5270.7160.3500.0260.006
51 Slovenia5.9481.2191.5060.8560.6330.1600.051
52 Romania5.9451.1161.2190.7260.5280.0880.001
53 Latvia5.9331.1481.4540.6710.3630.0920.066
54 Japan5.9151.2941.4620.9880.5530.0790.150
55 Mauritius5.8911.0901.3870.6840.5840.2450.050
56 Jamaica5.8900.8191.4930.6930.5750.0960.031
57 South Korea5.8751.2661.2040.9550.2440.1750.051
58 Northern Cyprus5.8351.2291.2110.9090.4950.1790.154
59 Russia5.8101.1511.4790.5990.3990.0650.025
60 Kazakhstan5.7901.1431.5160.6310.4540.1480.121
61 Cyprus5.7621.2291.1910.9090.4230.2020.035
62 Bolivia5.7520.7511.2230.5080.6060.1410.054
63 Estonia5.7391.2001.5320.7370.5530.0860.174
64 Paraguay5.6810.8351.5220.6150.5410.1620.074
65 Peru5.6630.9341.2490.6740.5300.0920.034
66 Kosovo5.6620.8551.2300.5780.4480.2740.023
67 Moldova5.6400.6571.3010.6200.2320.1710.000
68 Turkmenistan5.6361.0161.5330.5170.4170.1990.037
69 Hungary5.6201.1711.4010.7320.2590.0610.022
70 Libya5.5660.9851.3500.5530.4960.1160.148
71 Philippines5.5240.7751.3120.5130.6430.1200.105
72 Honduras5.5040.6201.2050.6220.4590.1970.074
73 Belarus5.4831.0391.4980.7000.3070.1010.154
74 Turkey5.4831.1481.3800.6860.3240.1060.109
75 Pakistan5.4720.6520.8100.4240.3340.2160.113
76 Hong Kong5.4301.4051.2901.0300.5240.2460.291
77 Portugal5.4101.1881.4290.8840.5620.0550.017
78 Serbia5.3980.9751.3690.6850.2880.1340.043
79 Greece5.3581.1541.2020.8790.1310.0000.044
80 Tajikistan5.3580.4741.1790.5980.5030.2140.136
81 Montenegro5.3471.0171.2790.7290.2590.1110.081
82 Croatia5.3211.1151.1610.7370.3800.1200.039
83 Dominican Republic5.3020.9821.4410.6140.5780.1200.106
84 Algeria5.2950.9791.1540.6870.0770.0550.135
85 Morocco5.2540.7790.7970.6690.4600.0260.074
86 China5.2460.9891.1420.7990.5970.0290.103
87 Azerbaijan5.2011.0241.1610.6030.4300.0310.176
88 Lebanon5.1990.9651.1660.7850.2920.1870.034
89 Macedonia5.1850.9591.2390.6910.3940.1730.052
90 Jordan5.1610.8221.2650.6450.4680.1300.134
91 Nigeria5.1550.6891.1720.0480.4620.2010.032
92 Kyrgyzstan5.1310.5301.4160.5940.5400.2810.035
93 Bosnia and Herzegovina5.1290.9151.0780.7580.2800.2160.000
94 Mongolia5.1250.9141.5170.5750.3950.2530.032
95 Vietnam5.1030.7151.3650.7020.6180.1770.079
96 Indonesia5.0930.8991.2150.5220.5380.4840.018
97 Bhutan5.0820.7961.3350.5270.5410.3640.171
98 Somalia4.9820.0000.7120.1150.6740.2380.282
99 Cameroon4.9750.5350.8910.1820.4540.1830.043
100 Bulgaria4.9331.0541.5150.7120.3590.0640.009
101   Nepal4.8800.4251.2280.5390.5260.3020.078
102 Venezuela4.8060.9961.4690.6570.1330.0560.052
103 Gabon4.7581.0361.1640.4040.3560.0320.052
104 Palestinian Territories4.7430.6421.2170.6020.2660.0860.076
105 South Africa4.7240.9401.4100.3300.5160.1030.056
106 Iran4.7071.0590.7710.6910.4590.2820.129
107 Ivory Coast4.6710.5410.8720.0800.4670.1460.103
108 Ghana4.6570.5920.8960.3370.4990.2120.029
109 Senegal4.6310.4291.1170.4330.4060.1380.082
110 Laos4.6230.7201.0340.4410.6260.2300.174
111 Tunisia4.5920.9000.9060.6900.2710.0400.063
112 Albania4.5860.9160.8170.7900.4190.1490.032
113 Sierra Leone4.5710.2560.8130.0000.3550.2380.053
114 Congo (Brazzaville)4.5590.6820.8110.3430.5140.0910.077
115 Bangladesh4.5000.5320.8500.5790.5800.1530.144
116 Sri Lanka4.4710.9181.3140.6720.5850.3070.050
117 Iraq4.4561.0100.9710.5360.3040.1480.095
118 Mali4.4470.3701.2330.1520.3670.1390.056
119 Namibia4.4410.8741.2810.3650.5190.0510.064
120 Cambodia4.4330.5491.0880.4570.6960.2560.065
121 Burkina Faso4.4240.3141.0970.2540.3120.1750.128
122 Egypt4.4190.8851.0250.5530.3120.0920.107
123 Mozambique4.4170.1980.9020.1730.5310.2060.158
124 Kenya4.4100.4931.0480.4540.5040.3520.055
125 Zambia4.3770.5621.0470.2950.5030.2210.082
126 Mauritania4.3560.5571.2450.2920.1290.1340.093
127 Ethiopia4.3500.3080.9500.3910.4520.2200.146
128 Georgia4.3400.8530.5920.6430.3750.0380.215
129 Armenia4.3210.8160.9900.6660.2600.0770.028
130 Myanmar4.3080.6821.1740.4290.5800.5980.178
131 Chad4.3010.3580.9070.0530.1890.1810.060
132 Congo (Kinshasa)4.2450.0691.1360.2040.3120.1970.052
133 India4.1900.7210.7470.4850.5390.1720.093
134 Niger4.1660.1310.8670.2210.3900.1750.099
135 Uganda4.1610.3221.0900.2370.4500.2590.061
136 Benin4.1410.3780.3720.2400.4400.1630.067
137 Sudan4.1390.6051.2400.3120.0160.1340.082
138 Ukraine4.1030.7931.4130.6090.1630.1870.011
139 Togo3.9990.2590.4740.2530.4340.1580.101
140 Guinea3.9640.3440.7920.2110.3940.1850.094
141 Lesotho3.8080.4721.2150.0790.4230.1160.112
142 Angola3.7950.7301.1250.2690.0000.0790.061
143 Madagascar3.7740.2620.9080.4020.2210.1550.049
144 Zimbabwe3.6920.3571.0940.2480.4060.1320.099
145 Afghanistan3.6320.3320.5370.2550.0850.1910.036
146 Botswana3.5901.0171.1740.4170.5570.0420.092
147 Malawi3.5870.1860.5410.3060.5310.2100.080
148 Haiti3.5820.3150.7140.2890.0250.3920.104
149 Liberia3.4950.0760.8580.2670.4190.2060.030
150 Syria3.4620.6890.3820.5390.0880.3760.144
151 Rwanda3.4080.3320.8960.4000.6360.2000.444
152 Yemen3.3550.4421.0730.3430.2440.0830.064
153 Tanzania3.3030.4550.9910.3810.4810.2700.097
154 South Sudan3.2540.3370.6080.1770.1120.2240.106
155 Central African Republic3.0830.0240.0000.0100.3050.2180.038
156 Burundi2.9050.0910.6270.1450.0650.1490.076

2017 report

The 2017 report features the happiness score averaged over the years 2014-2016. For that timespan, Norway was the overall happiest country in the world, even though oil prices had dropped. Close behind were Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland in a tight pack. Four of the top five countries follow the Nordic model. All the top ten countries had high scores in the six categories. The ranked follow-on countries in the top ten are: Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Sweden.

Table of data for 2017:[42]

Overall Rank Change in rank Country Score Change in score GDP per capita Social support Healthy life expectancy Freedom to make life choices Generosity Trust Residual
1Increase 3 Norway7.537Increase 0.0391.6161.5340.7970.6350.3620.3162.277
2Decrease 1 Denmark7.522Decrease 0.0041.4821.5510.7930.6260.3550.4012.314
3Steady Iceland7.504Increase 0.0031.4811.6110.8340.6270.4760.1542.323
4Decrease 2  Switzerland7.494Decrease 0.0151.5651.5170.8580.6200.2910.3672.277
5Steady Finland7.469Increase 0.0561.4441.5400.8090.6180.2450.3832.430
6Increase 1 Netherlands7.377Increase 0.0381.5041.4290.8110.5850.4700.2832.295
7Decrease 1 Canada7.316Decrease 0.0881.4791.4810.8350.6110.4360.2872.187
8Steady New Zealand7.314Decrease 0.0201.4061.5480.8170.6140.5000.3832.046
9Steady Australia7.284Decrease 0.0291.4841.5100.8440.6020.4780.3012.065
10Steady Sweden7.284Decrease 0.0071.4941.4780.8310.6130.3850.3842.098
11Steady Israel7.213Decrease 0.0541.3751.3760.8380.4060.3300.0852.802
12Increase 2 Costa Rica7.079Decrease 0.0081.1101.4160.7600.5800.2150.1002.899
13Decrease 1 Austria7.006Decrease 0.1131.4871.4600.8150.5680.3160.2212.139
14Decrease 1 United States6.993Decrease 0.1111.5461.4200.7740.5060.3930.1362.218
15Increase 4 Ireland6.977Increase 0.0701.5361.5580.8100.5730.4280.2981.774
16Steady Germany6.951Decrease 0.0431.4881.4730.7990.5630.3360.2772.016
17Increase 1 Belgium6.891Decrease 0.0381.4641.4620.8180.5400.2320.2512.124
18Increase 2 Luxembourg6.863Decrease 0.0081.7421.4580.8450.5970.2830.3191.620
19Increase 4 United Kingdom6.714Decrease 0.0111.4421.4960.8050.5080.4930.2651.704
20Increase 4 Chile6.652Decrease 0.0531.2531.2840.8190.3770.3270.0822.510
21Increase 7 United Arab Emirates6.648Increase 0.0751.6261.2660.7270.6080.3610.3241.735
22Decrease 5 Brazil6.635Decrease 0.3171.1071.4310.6170.4370.1620.1112.769
23Increase 4 Czech Republic6.609Increase 0.0131.3531.4340.7540.4910.0880.0372.452
24Increase 2 Argentina6.599Decrease 0.0511.1851.4400.6950.4950.1090.0602.614
25Decrease 4 Mexico6.578Decrease 0.2001.1531.2110.7100.4130.1210.1332.837
26Decrease 4 Singapore6.572Decrease 0.1671.6921.3540.9490.5500.3460.4641.216
27Increase 3 Malta6.527Increase 0.0391.3431.4880.8220.5890.5750.1531.557
28Increase 1 Uruguay6.454Decrease 0.0911.2181.4120.7190.5790.1750.1782.172
29Increase 10 Guatemala6.454Increase 0.1300.8721.2560.5400.5310.2830.0772.894
30Decrease 5 Panama6.452Decrease 0.2491.2341.3730.7060.5500.2110.0712.307
31Increase 1 France6.442Decrease 0.0361.4311.3880.8440.4700.1300.1732.006
32Increase 1 Thailand6.424Decrease 0.0501.1281.4260.6470.5800.5720.0322.040
33Increase 2 Taiwan6.422Increase 0.0431.4341.3850.7940.3610.2580.0642.127
34Increase 3 Spain6.403Increase 0.0421.3841.5320.8890.4090.1900.0711.928
35Increase 1 Qatar6.375Steady1.8711.2740.7100.6040.3300.4391.145
36Decrease 5 Colombia6.357Decrease 0.1241.0711.4020.5950.4770.1490.0472.616
37Decrease 3 Saudi Arabia6.344Decrease 0.0351.5311.2870.5900.4500.1480.2732.065
38Increase 5 Trinidad and Tobago6.168Steady1.3611.3800.5200.5190.3250.0092.053
39Increase 2 Kuwait6.105Decrease 0.1341.6331.2600.6320.4960.2280.2151.640
40Increase 5 Slovakia6.098Increase 0.0201.3251.5050.7130.2960.1370.0242.098
41Increase 1 Bahrain6.087Decrease 0.1311.4881.3230.6530.5370.1730.2571.656
42Increase 5 Malaysia6.084Increase 0.0791.2911.2850.6190.4020.4170.0662.004
—— Europe[Note 1]6.080N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
43Increase 5 Nicaragua6.071Increase 0.0790.7371.2870.6530.4480.3020.1312.514
44Increase 7 Ecuador6.008Increase 0.0321.0011.2860.6860.4550.1500.1402.290
45Increase 1 El Salvador6.003Decrease 0.0650.9101.1820.5960.4320.0780.0902.715
46Increase 11 Poland5.973Increase 0.1381.2921.4460.6990.5200.1580.0591.798
47Increase 2 Uzbekistan5.971Decrease 0.0160.7861.5490.4980.6580.4160.2471.817
48Increase 2 Italy5.964Decrease 0.0131.3951.4450.8530.2560.1730.0281.813
49Increase 7 Russia5.963Increase 0.1071.2821.4690.5470.3740.0520.0332.206
50Increase 2 Belize5.956Steady0.9081.0810.4500.5480.2400.0972.632
51Increase 2 Japan5.920Decrease 0.0011.4171.4360.9130.5060.1210.1641.363
52Increase 8 Lithuania5.902Increase 0.0891.3151.4740.6290.2340.0100.0122.228
53Decrease 15 Algeria5.872Decrease 0.4831.0921.1460.6180.2330.0690.1462.568
54Increase 14 Latvia5.850Increase 0.2901.2611.4050.6390.3260.1530.0741.994
55Steady Moldova5.838Decrease 0.0590.7291.2520.5890.2410.2090.0102.808
56Increase 2 South Korea5.838Increase 0.0031.4021.1280.9000.2580.2070.0631.880
57Increase 14 Romania5.825Increase 0.2971.2181.1500.6850.4570.1340.0042.177
58Increase 1 Bolivia5.823Increase 0.0010.8341.2280.4740.5590.2260.0602.443
59Increase 6 Turkmenistan5.822Increase 0.1641.1311.4930.4380.4180.2500.2591.833
60Decrease 6 Kazakhstan5.819Decrease 0.1001.2851.3840.6060.4370.2020.1191.785
61Increase 1 North Cyprus5.810Increase 0.0391.3471.1860.8350.4710.2670.1551.549
62Increase 1 Slovenia5.758Decrease 0.0101.3411.4530.7910.5730.2430.0451.313
63Increase 1 Peru5.715Decrease 0.0281.0351.2190.6300.4500.1270.0472.207
64Increase 2 Mauritius5.629Decrease 0.0191.1891.2100.6380.4910.3610.0421.698
65Increase 4 Cyprus5.621Increase 0.0751.3561.1310.8450.3550.2710.0411.621
66Increase 6 Estonia5.611Increase 0.0941.3211.4770.6950.4790.0990.1831.358
67Decrease 6 Belarus5.569Decrease 0.2331.1571.4450.6380.2950.1550.1561.723
68Decrease 1 Libya5.525Decrease 0.0901.1021.3580.5200.4660.1520.0931.835
69Increase 9 Turkey5.500Increase 0.1111.1981.3380.6380.3010.0470.1001.879
70Steady Paraguay5.493Decrease 0.0450.9331.5070.5790.4740.2240.0911.685
71Increase 4 Hong Kong5.472Increase 0.0141.5521.2630.9430.4910.3740.2940.555
72Increase 10 Philippines5.430Increase 0.1510.8581.2540.4680.5850.1940.0991.973
73Increase 13 Serbia5.395Increase 0.2181.0691.2580.6510.2090.2200.0411.947
74Increase 6 Jordan5.336Increase 0.0330.9911.2390.6050.4180.1720.1201.791
75Increase 16 Hungary5.324Increase 0.1791.2861.3430.6880.1760.0780.0371.716
76Decrease 3 Jamaica5.311Decrease 0.1990.9261.3680.6410.4740.2340.0551.612
—— World5.305[Note 2]N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
77Decrease 3 Croatia5.293Decrease 0.1951.2230.9680.7010.2560.2480.0431.854
78Decrease 1 Kosovo5.279Decrease 0.1220.9511.1380.5410.2600.3200.0572.011
79Increase 4 China5.273Increase 0.0281.0811.1610.7410.4730.0290.0231.765
80Increase 12 Pakistan5.269Increase 0.1370.7270.6730.4020.2350.3150.1242.792
81Decrease 2 Indonesia5.262Decrease 0.0520.9961.2740.4920.4430.6120.0151.429
82Decrease 38 Venezuela5.250Decrease 0.8341.1281.4310.6170.1540.0650.0641.789
83Increase 5 Montenegro5.237Increase 0.0761.1211.2380.6670.1950.1980.0881.729
84Increase 6 Morocco5.235Increase 0.0840.8780.7750.5980.4080.0320.0882.456
85Decrease 4 Azerbaijan7.342Decrease 0.0571.1541.1520.5410.3980.0450.1811.762
86Increase 3 Dominican Republic5.230Increase 0.0751.0791.4020.5750.5530.1870.1141.319
87Increase 12 Greece5.227Increase 0.1941.2891.2390.8100.0960.0000.0431.749
88Increase 5 Lebanon5.225Increase 0.0961.0751.1300.7350.2890.2640.0381.695
89Increase 5 Portugal5.195Increase 0.0721.3151.3670.7960.4980.0950.0161.108
90Decrease 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina5.182Increase 0.0190.9821.0690.7050.2040.3290.0001.892
91Increase 13 Honduras5.181Increase 0.3100.7311.1440.5830.3480.2360.0732.066
92Increase 3 Macedonia5.175Increase 0.0541.0651.2080.6450.3260.2540.0601.617
93Decrease 17 Somalia5.151Decrease 0.2890.0230.7210.1140.6020.2920.2823.117
94Increase 2 Vietnam5.074Increase 0.0130.7891.2770.6520.5710.2350.0881.462
95Increase 8 Nigeria5.074Increase 0.1990.7841.2160.0570.3950.2310.0262.365
96Increase 4 Tajikistan5.041Increase 0.0450.5251.2710.5290.4720.2490.1461.849
97Decrease 13 Bhutan5.011Decrease 0.1850.8851.3400.4960.5020.4740.1731.140
98Decrease 13 Kyrgyzstan5.004Decrease 0.1810.5961.3940.5530.4550.4290.0391.537
99Increase 8   Nepal4.962Increase 0.1690.4801.1790.5040.4400.3940.0731.891
——Soviet Union Soviet Union4.959[Note 3]N/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/AN/A
100Increase 1 Mongolia4.955Increase 0.0481.0271.4930.5580.3940.3380.0331.111
101Increase 15 South Africa4.829Increase 0.3701.0551.3850.1870.4790.1390.0731.511
102Decrease 4 Tunisia4.805Decrease 0.2401.0070.8680.6130.2900.0500.0871.890
103Increase 5 Palestinian Territories4.775Increase 0.0210.7161.1560.5660.2550.1140.0891.879
104Increase 16 Egypt4.735Increase 0.3730.9900.9970.5200.2820.1290.1141.702
105Increase 24 Bulgaria4.714Increase 0.4971.1611.4340.7080.2890.1130.0110.996
106Increase 5 Sierra Leone4.709Increase 0.0740.3680.9840.0060.3190.2930.0712.668
107Increase 7 Cameroon4.695Increase 0.1820.5640.9460.1330.4300.2360.0512.334
108Decrease 3 Iran4.692Decrease 0.1211.1570.7120.6390.2490.3870.0491.499
109Steady Albania4.644Decrease 0.0110.9960.8040.7310.3810.2010.0401.490
110Steady Bangladesh4.608Decrease 0.0350.5870.7350.5330.4780.1720.1241.979
111Increase 2 Namibia4.574Steady0.9641.0980.3390.5200.0770.0931.482
112Increase 10 Kenya4.553Increase 0.1970.5601.0680.3100.4530.4450.0651.652
113N/A Mozambique4.550N/A0.2340.8710.1070.4810.3220.1792.356
114Increase 5 Myanmar4.545Increase 0.1500.3671.1230.3980.5140.8380.1891.115
115Increase 13 Senegal4.535Increase 0.3160.4791.1800.4090.3780.1830.1151.790
116Decrease 10 Zambia4.514Decrease 0.2810.6361.0030.2580.4620.2500.0781.827
117Decrease 5 Iraq4.497Decrease 0.0781.1030.9790.5010.2890.2000.1071.319
118Increase 16 Gabon4.465Increase 0.3441.1981.1560.3570.3120.0440.0761.323
119Decrease 4 Ethiopia4.460Decrease 0.0480.3390.8650.3530.4090.3130.1652.016
120Decrease 3 Sri Lanka4.440Increase 0.0251.0101.2600.6250.5610.4910.0740.419
121Steady Armenia4.376Increase 0.0160.9011.0070.6380.1980.0830.0271.521
122Decrease 4 India4.315Decrease 0.0890.7920.7540.4550.4700.2320.0921.519
123Increase 7 Mauritania4.292Increase 0.0910.6481.2720.2850.0960.2020.1371.652
124Increase 1 Congo (Brazzaville)4.291Increase 0.0190.8090.8320.2900.4350.1210.0801.724
125Increase 1 Georgia4.286Increase 0.0340.9510.5710.6500.3090.0540.2521.500
126Increase 1 Congo (Kinshasa)4.280Increase 0.0440.0921.2290.1910.2360.2460.0602.225
127Increase 8 Mali4.190Increase 0.1170.4761.2810.1690.3070.1830.1051.668
128Increase 11 Ivory Coast4.180Increase 0.2640.6030.9050.0490.4480.2010.1301.845
129Increase 11 Cambodia4.168Increase 0.2610.6021.0060.4300.6330.3860.0681.043
130Increase 3 Sudan4.139Steady0.6601.2140.2910.0150.1820.0901.687
131Decrease 7 Ghana4.120Decrease 0.1560.6670.8740.2960.4230.2570.0251.578
132Decrease 9 Ukraine4.096Decrease 0.2280.8951.3950.5760.1230.2700.0230.814
133Increase 13 Uganda4.081Increase 0.3420.3811.1300.2180.4430.3260.0571.526
134Increase 11 Burkina Faso4.032Increase 0.2930.3501.0430.2160.3240.2510.1201.727
135Increase 7 Niger4.028Increase 0.1720.1620.9930.2690.3640.2290.1391.874
136Decrease 4 Malawi3.970Decrease 0.1860.2330.5130.3150.4670.2870.0732.082
137Increase 7 Chad3.936Increase 0.1730.4380.9540.0410.1620.2160.0542.071
138Decrease 7 Zimbabwe3.875Decrease 0.3180.3761.0830.1970.3360.1890.0951.598
139N/A Lesotho3.808N/A0.5211.1900.0000.3910.1570.1191.430
140Increase 1 Angola3.795Decrease 0.0710.8581.1040.0500.0000.0980.0701.614
141Increase 13 Afghanistan3.794Increase 0.4340.4010.5820.1810.1060.3120.0612.151
142Decrease 5 Botswana3.766Decrease 0.2081.1221.2220.3420.5050.0990.0990.378
143Increase 10 Benin3.657Increase 0.1730.4310.4350.2100.4260.2080.0611.886
144Increase 4 Madagascar3.644Decrease 0.0510.3060.9130.3750.1890.2090.0671.585
145Decrease 9 Haiti3.603Decrease 0.4250.3690.6400.2770.0300.4890.1001.697
146Increase 1 Yemen3.593Decrease 0.1310.5920.9350.3100.2490.1040.0571.346
147Decrease 4 South Sudan3.591Decrease 0.2410.3970.6010.1630.1470.2860.1171.880
148Increase 2 Liberia3.533Decrease 0.0890.1190.8720.2300.3330.2670.0391.673
149Increase 2 Guinea3.507Decrease 0.1000.2450.7910.1940.3490.2650.1111.552
150Increase 5 Togo3.495Increase 0.1920.3050.4320.2470.3800.1970.0961.837
151Increase 1 Rwanda3.471Decrease 0.0440.3690.9460.3260.5820.2530.4550.540
152Increase 4 Syria3.462Increase 0.3930.7770.3960.5010.0820.4940.1511.062
153Decrease 4 Tanzania3.349Decrease 0.3170.5111.0420.3650.3900.3540.0660.621
154Increase 3 Burundi2.905Steady0.0920.6300.1520.0600.2040.0841.683
155N/A Central African Republic2.693N/A0.0000.0000.0190.2710.2810.0572.066

2013–2015 averaged ranking

Table

Legend:[43]

  Explained by: GDP per capita
  Explained by: Social support
  Explained by: Healthy life expectancy
  Explained by: Freedom to make life choices
  Explained by: Generosity
  Trust or absence of corruption, as explained by the publicly perceived absence of corruption in government and business[44]

Italics: States with limited recognition and disputed territories

Overall Rank
[45][46]		 Country Score Change Over
Prior Year		 GDP per capita Social support Healthy life expectancy Freedom to make life choices Generosity Trust
1  Denmark 7.526 Decrease -0.401
2   Switzerland 7.509 Increase 0.035
3  Iceland 7.501 Steady 0.000
4  Norway 7.498 Increase 0.082
5  Finland 7.413 Decrease -0.259
6  Canada 7.404 Decrease -0.041
7  Netherlands 7.339 Decrease -0.119
8  New Zealand 7.334 Decrease -0.097
9  Australia 7.313 Increase 0.002
10  Sweden 7.291 Decrease -0.017
11  Israel 7.267 Increase 0.258
12  Austria 7.119 Decrease -0.003
13  United States 7.104 Decrease -0.261
14  Costa Rica 7.087 Decrease -0.171
15  Puerto Rico 7.039 Increase 0.446
16  Germany 6.994 Increase 0.486
17  Brazil 6.952 Increase 0.474
18  Belgium 6.929 Decrease -0.311
19  Ireland 6.907 Decrease -0.238
20  Luxembourg 6.871 Steady 0.000
21  Mexico 6.778 Increase 0.225
22  Singapore 6.739 Increase 0.099
23  United Kingdom 6.725 Decrease -0.161
24  Chile 6.705 Increase 0.826
25  Panama 6.701 Increase 0.191
26  Argentina 6.650 Increase 0.457
27  Czech Republic 6.596 Increase 0.126
28  United Arab Emirates 6.573 Decrease -0.161
29  Uruguay 6.545 Increase 0.804
30  Malta 6.488 Steady 0.000
31  Colombia 6.481 Increase 0.399
32  France 6.478 Decrease -0.336
33  Thailand 6.474 Increase 0.631
34  Saudi Arabia 6.379 Decrease -0.794
35  Taiwan 6.379 Increase 0.190
36  Qatar 6.375 Steady 0.000
37  Spain 6.361 Decrease -0.711
38  Algeria 6.355 Steady 0.000
39  Guatemala 6.324 Increase 0.211
40  Suriname 6.269 Steady 0.000
41  Kuwait 6.239 Increase 0.164
42  Bahrain 6.218 Steady 0.000
43  Trinidad and Tobago 6.168 Increase 0.336
44  Venezuela 6.084 Decrease -0.762
45  Slovakia 6.078 Increase 0.814
46  El Salvador 6.068 Increase 0.572
47  Malaysia 6.005 Decrease -0.132
48  Nicaragua 5.992 Increase 1.285
49  Uzbekistan 5.987 Increase 0.755
50  Italy 5.977 Decrease -0.735
51  Ecuador 5.976 Increase 0.966
52  Belize 5.956 Decrease -0.495
53  Japan 5.921 Decrease -0.446
54  Kazakhstan 5.919 Increase 0.322
55  Moldova 5.897 Increase 0.959
56  Russia 5.856 Increase 0.738
57  Poland 5.835 Increase 0.098
58  South Korea 5.835 Increase 0.295
59  Bolivia 5.822 Increase 0.322
60  Lithuania 5.813 Decrease -0.069
61  Belarus 5.802 Increase 0.165
62  Northern Cyprus 5.771 Steady 0.000
63  Slovenia 5.768 Decrease -0.044
64  Peru 5.743 Increase 0.730
65  Turkmenistan 5.658 Steady 0.000
66  Mauritius 5.648 Steady 0.000
67  Libya 5.615 Steady 0.000
68  Latvia 5.560 Increase 0.872
69  Cyprus 5.546 Decrease -0.692
70  Paraguay 5.538 Increase 0.536
71  Romania 5.528 Increase 0.310
72  Estonia 5.517 Increase 0.165
73  Jamaica 5.510 Decrease -0.698
74  Croatia 5.488 Decrease -0.333
75  Hong Kong 5.458 Decrease -0.053
76  Somalia 5.440 Steady 0.000
77 Kosovo Kosovo[Note 4] 5.401 Increase 0.298
78  Turkey 5.389 Increase 0.216
79  Indonesia 5.314 Increase 0.295
80  Jordan 5.303 Decrease -0.638
81  Azerbaijan 5.291 Increase 0.642
82  Philippines 5.279 Increase 0.425
83  People's Republic of China 5.245 Increase 0.525
84  Bhutan 5.196 Steady 0.000
85  Kyrgyzstan 5.185 Increase 0.515
86  Serbia 5.177 Increase 0.426
87  Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.163 Increase 0.263
88  Montenegro 5.161 Decrease -0.035
89  Dominican Republic 5.155 Increase 0.070
90  Morocco 5.151 Steady 0.000
91  Hungary 5.145 Increase 0.070
92  Pakistan 5.132 Decrease -0.374
93  Lebanon 5.129 Increase 0.059
94  Portugal 5.123 Decrease -0.282
95  Macedonia 5.121 Increase 0.627
96  Vietnam 5.061 Decrease -0.299
97 Somaliland Somaliland region 5.057 Steady 0.000
98  Tunisia 5.045 Steady 0.000
99  Greece 5.033 Decrease -1.294
100  Tajikistan 4.996 Increase 0.474
101  Mongolia 4.907 Increase 0.298
102  Laos 4.876 Decrease -0.344
103  Nigeria 4.875 Increase 0.075
104  Honduras 4.871 Decrease -0.375
105  Iran 4.813 Decrease -0.507
106  Zambia 4.795 Increase 0.381
107    Nepal 4.793 Increase 0.135
108 State of Palestine Palestinian Territories[Note 5] 4.754 Increase 0.321
109  Albania 4.655 Increase 0.021
110  Bangladesh 4.643 Increase 0.170
111  Sierra Leone 4.635 Increase 1.028
112  Iraq 4.575 Steady 0.000
113  Namibia 4.574 Decrease -0.312
114  Cameroon 4.513 Increase 0.413
115  Ethiopia 4.508 Steady 0.000
116  South Africa 4.459 Decrease -0.686
117  Sri Lanka 4.415 Increase 0.037
118  India 4.404 Decrease -0.750
119  Myanmar 4.395 Steady 0.000
120  Egypt 4.362 Decrease -0.996
121  Armenia 4.360 Decrease -0.226
122  Kenya 4.356 Decrease -0.044
123  Ukraine 4.324 Decrease -0.701
124  Ghana 4.276 Decrease -0.600
125  Republic of the Congo 4.272 Steady 0.000
126  Georgia 4.252 Increase 0.561
127  Democratic Republic of the Congo 4.236 Steady 0.000
128  Senegal 4.219 Decrease -0.328
129  Bulgaria 4.217 Increase 0.373
130  Mauritania 4.201 Increase 0.052
131  Zimbabwe 4.193 Increase 0.639
132  Malawi 4.156 Decrease -0.205
133  Sudan 4.139 Steady 0.000
134  Gabon 4.121 Steady 0.000
135  Mali 4.073 Increase 0.059
136  Haiti 4.028 Increase 0.274
137  Botswana 3.974 Decrease -0.765
138  Comoros 3.956 Steady 0.000
139  Ivory Coast 3.916 Steady 0.000
140  Cambodia 3.907 Increase 0.045
141  Angola 3.866 Steady 0.000
142  Niger 3.856 Decrease -0.144
143  South Sudan 3.832 Steady 0.000
144  Chad 3.763 Decrease -0.025
145  Burkina Faso 3.739 Decrease -0.170
146  Uganda 3.739 Decrease -0.356
147  Yemen 3.724 Decrease -0.754
148  Madagascar 3.695 Decrease -0.285
149  Tanzania 3.666 Decrease -0.460
150  Liberia 3.622 Decrease -0.080
151  Guinea 3.607 Steady 0.000
152  Rwanda 3.515 Decrease -0.700
153  Benin 3.484 Increase 0.154
154  Afghanistan 3.360 Steady 0.000
155  Togo 3.303 Increase 0.100
156  Syria 3.069 Steady 0.000
157  Burundi 2.905 Steady 0.000

Criticism

Metrics

Some argue that questioning on overall life status leads humans to overweight income concerns, rather than happiness. For instance Colombia came 37th in the 2018 World Happiness Index but 1st by daily emotional experience.[47] In 2012 "A Gallup survey on happiest countries had a completely different list [compared with the World Happiness Index], with Panama first, followed by Paraguay, El Salvador, and Venezuela". Similarly a Pew survey of 43 countries in 2014 (which excluded most of Europe) had Mexico, Israel and Venezuela finishing first, second and third.[48]

Others point out that the ranking results are counterintuitive when it come to some dimensions, for "instance if rate of suicide is used as a metric for measuring unhappiness, (the opposite of happiness), then quite some of the countries which are ranked among the top 20 happiest countries in the world will also feature among the top 20 with the highest suicide rates in the world."[49]

Methodology

From an econometric perspective, some statisticians argue the statistical methodology mentioned in the first world happiness report using 9 domains is unreliable.[50]

Others argue that the World Happiness Report model uses a limited subset of indicators used by other models and does not use an Index function like peer econometric models such as Gross National Well-being Index 2005, Sustainable Society Index of 2008[51], OECD Better Life Index of 2011, and Bhutan Gross National Happiness Index of 2012, and Social Progress Index of 2013.

Other critics point out that Happiness Surveys are contradictory in Ranking because of the varying methodologies. They also argue that the surveys are inherently flawed. "No matter how carefully parsed the data may be, a survey based on unreliable answers isn't worth a lot."

Philosophical concerns

From a philosophical perspective, critics argue that measuring of happiness of a grouping of people is misleading because happiness is an individual matter. They state "the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Tolstoy and several others, happiness is an individual choice that is independent of the society, its structures and enabling or dis-enabling conditions and not something to be measured using variables that can only capture a nation’s well-being. This means therefore that one cannot really talk of a happy or unhappy nation, but of happy or unhappy individuals."[52]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Score not included in the original report, but was attained by adding up Europe's scores and then dividing for an average: 6.08044.
  2. ↑ Score not included in the original report, but was attained by adding up all the scores and then dividing for an average: 5.3053935483871.
  3. ↑ Score not included in the original report, but just added up all the scores and divided for an average: 4.9592.
  4. ↑ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has received formal recognition as an independent state from 113 out of 193 United Nations member states.
  5. ↑ See the following on statehood criteria:
    • Mendes, Errol (30 March 2010). "Statehood and Palestine for the purposes of Article 12 (3) of the ICC Statute" (PDF). 30 March 2010: 28, 33. Retrieved 2011-04-17: "...the Palestinian State also meets the traditional criteria under the Montevideo Convention..."; "...the fact that a majority of states have recognised Palestine as a State should easily fulfill the requisite state practice".
    • McKinney, Kathryn M. (1994). "The Legal Effects of the Israeli-PLO Declaration ofPrinciples: Steps Toward Statehood for Palestine". Seattle University Law Review. Seattle University. 18 (93): 97. Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-04-17: "It is possible, however, to argue for Palestinian statehood based on the constitutive theory".
    • McDonald, Avril (Spring 2009). "Operation Cast Lead: Drawing the Battle Lines of the Legal Dispute". Human Rights Brief. Washington College of Law, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. 25. Retrieved 2011-04-17: "Whether one applies the criteria of statehood set out in the Montevideo Convention or the more widely accepted constitutive theory of statehood, Palestine might be considered a state."

References

  1. ↑ "World Happiness Report homepage".
  2. ↑ "Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Associate Professor of Economics and Strategy". University of Oxford, SAID Business School.
  3. ↑ "People Collection - Haifang Huang, Ph.D." University of Alberta.
  4. ↑ "Shun Wang, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management, Korea Development Institute". VOX CEPR Policy Portal voxeu.org/.
  5. ↑ "Martine Durand" (PDF). OECD.org.
  6. ↑ "Nicole Fortin Professor CIFAR, SIIWB program, Senior FellowIZA, Research Fellow". University of British Columbia School of Economics economics.ubc.ca.
  7. ↑ "Jon Hall Head of Unit". UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME Human Development Programme.
  8. ↑ "Valerie Møller". The Pursuit of Human Well-being miqols.org.
  9. ↑ "Happiness : towards a holistic approach to development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly". UN DAG Repository.
  10. ↑ "Defining a New Economic Paradigm: The Report of the High-Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness". UN Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.
  11. ↑ "GNH Survey 2010" (PDF). The Centre for Bhutan Studies. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  12. ↑ "Defining a New Economic Paradigm: The Report of the High-Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness". Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.
  13. ↑ Helliwell, John; Layard, Richard; Sachs, Jeffrey (April 2, 2012). "World Happiness Report" (PDF). Columbia University Earth Institute. Retrieved 2014-06-29.
  14. ↑ Kyu Lee (2013-09-09). "Sustainable Development Solutions Network | World Happiness Report 2013". unsdsn.org. Retrieved 2014-04-25.
  15. ↑ "World Happiness Report".
  16. ↑ Astor, Maggie (March 14, 2018). "Want to Be Happy? Try Moving to Finland". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  17. ↑ Pullella, Philip (March 14, 2018). "Finland Is World's Happiest Country, U.S. Discontent Grows: U.N. Report". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Methodology - How Does the Gallup World Poll Work?". www.gallup.com.
  19. ↑ "World Poll Questions - Gallup" (PDF).
  20. ↑ "This is the world's happiest country". CNN Travel. 2018-03-14. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  21. ↑ "Why Happiness?". Action for Happiness.
  22. ↑ "Faculty of Economics - Dr Luisa Corrado". University of Cambridge.
  23. ↑ "Luca Stanca University of Milan , Milano · Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods DEMM". Research Gate.
  24. ↑ "Luca Crivelli - Biography". Università della Svizzera italiana.
  25. ↑ "Happiness : towards a holistic approach to development : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly".
  26. ↑ "Defining a New Economic Paradigm: The Report of the High-Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness".
  27. ↑ "2015 GNH Survey Report". Center for Bhutan Studies.
  28. ↑ "Dr. Ann Hagell". Nuffield Foundation.
  29. ↑ "Leonardo Becchetti, Professore Ordinario". University of Rome "Tor Vergata".
  30. ↑ "OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being". March 20, 2013.
  31. ↑ "Jon Hall - Head of Unit United Nations Development Programme".
  32. ↑ "Defining a New Economic Paradigm: The Report of the High-Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness". 2012.
  33. ↑ "Shun Wang -Assistant Professor at the School of Public Policy and Management, Korea Development Institute". voxeu.org/.
  34. ↑ "Welcome to the World Values Survey site".
  35. ↑ "Staff Biography Dr. Andrew Clark". Center for Economic Performance.
  36. ↑ "Claudia Senik". Economics Serving Society.
  37. ↑ "Karma Ura". Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18.
  38. ↑ "Sabina Alkire". Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative.
  39. ↑ "Well-being". Office for National Statistics.
  40. ↑ "Welcome to the Office for National Statistics".
  41. ↑ OECD. "OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being".
  42. ↑ Helliwell, J.; Layard, R.; Sachs, J. (2017). World Happiness Report 2017. New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network. ISBN 978-0-9968513-5-0.
  43. ↑ "World Happiness Report 2016 Update". UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network; Earth Institute (University of Columbia). pp. 20–21–22. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 20 Mar 2016.
  44. ↑ "Chapter 2: The Distribution of World Happiness", World Happiness Report 2016 Update (PDF), p. 4, para. 1, retrieved 20 Mar 2016
  45. ↑ "2016 Update Report download" (PDF). Retrieved 20 Mar 2016.
  46. ↑ 2016 Table download (XLS), Figure2.2, retrieved 20 Mar 2016
  47. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-happiest-people-world-jon-clifton/
  48. ↑ "That world happiness survey is complete crap". 22 March 2017.
  49. ↑ https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/columns/can-happiness-really-be-measured/139302.html
  50. ↑ Yau, Nathan (25 April 2012). "World Happiness Report makes statisticians unhappy".
  51. ↑ "Data – All countries – Sustainable Society Index". www.ssfindex.com.
  52. ↑ https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/columns/can-happiness-really-be-measured/139302.html
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