World Happiness Report

22-Mar-2019: India ranked 140th in World Happiness Index 2019

The world happiness report for 2019 has ranked Finland as the most happiest country for the second consecutive year amongst 156 nations surveyed by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. India has dropped down seven spots in the happiness rankings as compared to its 2018 ranking.

In 2018, India was placed on 133 position, but this year its ranking went down to 140. In 2015, India was on 117 spot, in 2016 it was ranked on 118 spot. The position went up to 122 in 2017.

Various factors that determine the happiness levels of a country include life expectancy, social support, income, freedom, trust, health and generosity, amongst others.

The immediate neighbours of India including Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are way ahead in the happiness rankings. In this report, Pakistan stands at 67th rank, China at 93, Bhutan at 95, Nepal at 100, Bangladesh at 125 and Sri Lanka at 130, leaving India way behind.

Happiest countries: Finland is followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.

Unhappiest countries: South Sudan has topped the list of the unhappiest countries of the world. It is followed by Central African Republic, Afghanistan and Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.

2018

15-Mar-2018: India ranked 133rd in World Happiness Index 2018

The World Happiness Index 2018, which measures 156 countries in terms of happiness, has placed India in the 133rd position, a drop of 11 places from last year's 122nd rank. The country was ranked 118th in 2016. India's ranking was far behind from other neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Nepal and China.

Among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, Pakistan was ranked 75th, while Nepal was ranked at 101st. Bhutan has been placed at 97th rank and Sri Lanka at 116th position. Bangladesh is ranked at 115th in the happiness index.

Myanmar, which is embroiled in the ethnic violence between the majority Buddhists and the minority Rohingya Muslims has been placed at 130th position.

Only war-ravaged Afghanistan fared worse than India, as the former was ranked 145th.

Finland, which was ranked 5th last year, displaced Norway to be the world's happiest country. Norway dropped to 2nd position in the index.

The United States, which was ranked 14th last year, dropped four places to be at 18th position, while the United Kingdom was ranked 20th respectively.

The African countries - Tanzania (153rd), South Sudan (154th), Central African Republic (155th) and Burundi (156th) occupied the bottom positions in the happiness index.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network's (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries in GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

2017

21-Mar-2017: Norway tops the global happiness rankings for 2017

The World Happiness Report 2017 was released by the United Nations on the International Day of Happiness (20th March).

The World Happiness Report is a measure of happiness published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It is the fifth such report since the first was published in 2012.

The rankings are based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy with four factors from global surveys. In those surveys, people give scores from 1 to 10 on how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

Norway occupies the top position. It surged from fourth place in last year’s UN assessment all the way to the top spot. Other top countries on the list included Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland, as well as nearby Switzerland. All of the top four countries rank highly on all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance.

The top 10 were Finland, in fifth place, the Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8), and Australia and Sweden tied for 9th. The entire top 10 were affluent, developed nations, although money is not the only ingredient for happiness.

In fact, among the wealthier countries the differences in happiness levels had a lot to do with differences in mental health, physical health and personal relationships: the biggest single source of misery is mental illness.

Another major country, China, has made major economic strides in recent years. But its people are not happier than 25 years ago. China ranked 79th in the study of 155 countries.

India is ranked at 122 out of 155 countries, four notches below its previous rank of 118. India was behind the majority of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, apart from war-ravaged Afghanistan, that stood at 141. Among the eight SAARC nations, Pakistan was at 80th position, Nepal stood at 99, Bhutan at 97, Bangladesh at 110 while Sri Lanka was at 120. However, Maldives did not figure in the World Happiness Report.