Commissioned by the United Nations, the latest ranking of the World Happiness Report was recently published: it determines the level of happiness of people around the world.
- For the sixth consecutive year, Finland is the happiest country in the world.
- Lithuania is now in 20th place in the World Happiness Report ranking.
- Of the 150 countries assessed, we find Afghanistan in 137th place and Lebanon in 136th place.
According to the recent ranking of the World Happiness Report, relayed by CNNFinland is, for the sixth consecutive year, the happiest country in the world.
Nordic countries at the top of the ranking of the happiest nations
This report, commissioned by the United Nations, examined different data from global surveys carried out among the inhabitants of more than 150 countries. He ranked which nations are the happiest, which are the most unhappy, and which fall in between. The level of happiness was measured from the average assessment of life over the past three years, from 2020 to 2022, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the lockdowns and the spread of Covid-19, benevolence is 25% higher than it was before the pandemic. “Benevolence towards others, especially helping strangers, which increased dramatically in 2021, remained high in 2022 (…) Even during these difficult years, positive emotions remained twice more frequent than negative emotions, and feelings of positive social support twice as strong as feelings of loneliness”noted John Helliwell, one of the report’s authors, to CNN.
What are the 20 happiest nations?
Nordic countries like Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway are considered good places to live. These regions all scored highly on the criteria used by the report to measure people’s well-being. These countries notably have very good longevity in good health, generosity within their communities, low corruption and significant freedom of expression.
Within the ranking, the 20 happiest countries in the world are:
- 1. Finland
- 2. Denmark
- 3. Iceland
- 4. Israel
- 5. Netherlands
- 6. Sweden
- 7. Norway
- 8. Switzerland
- 9. Luxemburg
- 10. New Zealand
- 11. Austria
- 12. Australia
- 13. Canada
- 14. Ireland
- 15. United States of America
- 16. Germany
- 17. Belgium
- 18. Czech Republic
- 19. United Kingdom
- 20. Lithuania
This year, Lithuania entered the top 20 of the happiest countries in the world while France left it and finished in 21st place.
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has also impacted the well-being of their populations. Now Russia occupies the 70th place and Ukraine 92nd. However, even though the happiness of Ukrainians has been greatly affected by the damage caused by this war, “life assessments in September 2022 remained higher than in the aftermath of the 2014 annexation, now supported by a stronger sense of common purpose, benevolence and trust in Ukraine’s leadership”can we read in the report.
In the last positions of the ranking, we find Afghanistan in 137th place and Lebanon in 136th place.
