Finland named happiest country in the world, see where India stands

Finland, for the fifth year in a row, has been named as the happiest country in the world, with Denmark coming in second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, Forbes reported on Friday.

The World Happiness Report is released every year by the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The statisticians base the ranking on data from the Gallup World Poll and several other factors, including levels of GDP, life expectancy and more.

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With the world entering the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report has three areas of focus in 2022: looking back; looking at how people and countries are doing in the face of COVID-19; and looking ahead to how the science of well-being is likely to evolve in the future.

It is reportedly said that this year’s report found remarkable worldwide growth in all three acts of kindness monitored in the Gallup World Poll.

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“Helping strangers, volunteering and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world, reaching levels almost 25% above their pre-pandemic prevalence,” says John Helliwell, professor at the University of British Columbia and the editor of the World Happiness Report.

According to Helliwell, some other good news, despite the pandemic are positive emotions as a whole remained more than twice as frequent as negative ones.

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According to the report, the US came in at number 16 while Canada stands at number 15. France reached its highest ranking to date, at number 20. Meanwhile, India’s ranking inched forward three spots to 136, from 139 in 2021. 

Besides the happiest countries in the world, the report also looked at the places where people are the saddest. Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest countries in the world, with Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana rounding out the bottom five.

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Curiously, Finland shares a border with Russia, marking a grim reality during a time of war: the happiest country set alongside one of the unhappiest. Russia came in at number 80 on the list.

Here’s a list of world’s 20 happiest countries:

Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel, New Zealand, Austria, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Belgium and France.