Finland named world’s happiest country for sixth year in a row, India least happy nation

For six years in a row, Finland has been ranked as the No.1 as the happiest country in the world, according to World Happiness Report and India continued to fare poorly in the world happiness index with 125 as against last year’s 136.

On 20th March, which is observed as World Happiness Day, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network published this year’s edition of the World Happiness Report that assesses global happiness across various measures including national and international dimensions.

Finland tops the ranking for the sixth year in a row with a score of 7.8 and other Norwegian countries like Denmark, Iceland are ranked second and third. In the list of top 10, other countries are Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand.

The report evaluates countries’ happiness on factors such as effectiveness of government, GDP per capita, income, life expectancy, sense of safety, sense of freedom to make key life decisions, equality, generosity, social support, and the absence of corruption.

While India might be the fastest-growing economy, when it comes to happiness it has ranked a low 125 out of 137 countries making a small improvement from last year. Its ranking is even below neighboring countries like Nepal, China, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. India has continuously been amongst the unhappiest countries in the world, ranking even below countries in crisis.

Despite the Russia-Ukraine conflict, generosity in both countries increased between 2020 and 2021. Benevolence increased considerably in Ukraine but declined in Russia in 2022. Russia ranks 70th while Ukraine ranks 92nd.

At the very bottom of the list is Afghanistan at 137th position.