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2016-03-17 06:42:46
16 March 2016
Denmark is the world's happiest country while Burundi is the least happy,
according to a new survey.
The fourth World Happiness Report also found that countries where there was
less inequality were happier overall.
Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland, which like Denmark have strong social
security systems, made up the rest of the top five.
The US was the world's 13th happiest country, the UK was 23rd, China was 83rd
and India was 118th.
Why are the Danes so happy?
Hygge: The Danish concept for happy homes
At the bottom of the 156 countries on the list was Burundi, which is
experiencing severe political unrest and the threat of violence. It scored
worse than Syria, where a civil war has killed more than 250,000 people over
the past five years.
The survey found Syrians had a better healthy-life expectancy and were also
seen as being more generous than Burundians and people in the three other
nations - Togo, Afghanistan and Benin - making up the five least happy
countries.
Northern America, Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe were the happiest
regions overall.
South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were the only regions where the average
rating for wellbeing was less than five out of 10.
The report - compiled by the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(SDSN) - is an analysis of Gallup World Poll data generated from surveys of
1,000 people in each country every year for three years. They were asked to
evaluate their lives on a ladder scale of zero to 10.
The researchers defined six key categories: gross domestic product (a nation's
output of goods and services) per capita, social support, healthy-life
expectancy, personal freedom, charitable giving and perceived corruption.
Inequality of happiness
The report found that people are happier living in societies where there is
less inequality of happiness. Likewise it found that the bigger the gap - or
inequality - in a country's happiness, the more widespread unhappiness is as a
whole.
It also looked at social support - defined as being able to count on someone in
difficult times - and the presence or otherwise of corruption.
"Human wellbeing should be nurtured through a holistic approach that combines
economic, social and environmental objectives," Columbia University Earth
Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs said in a SDSN press release.
"Rather than taking a narrow approach focused solely on economic growth, we
should promote societies that are prosperous, just, and environmentally
sustainable."
Points of interest from the 2016 report
The US has inequality of wellbeing to match its much-discussed income gap.
Americans are 85th among 157 countries ranked by the gap between the most and
least happy
Greece - beset by economic and political problems - had the largest decrease in
public happiness as well as large inequalities in happiness
Parenting is hardest on those in high-GDP countries, and particularly among the
unemployed
Happiness inequality has increased significantly in most countries, in almost
all global regions, and for the population of the world as a whole
The top 10 countries in 2016 are the same as in the 2015 report, although their
ordering has changed once again, with Denmark regaining the top spot from
Switzerland
Of the world's other populous nations, Indonesia came in at 79, Brazil at 17,
Pakistan at 92, Nigeria at 103, Bangladesh at 110, Russia at 56, Japan at 53
and Mexico at 21