UN Reveals Happiest Countries in the World

The happiest countries in the world have been named by the United Nations as part of its annual World Happiness Report 2023, published in March.

Finland was named the world’s happiest country for the sixth year in a row, “with a score that is significantly ahead of all other countries,” authors of the report said.

While the UK didn’t make the top 10 happiest countries list, it was named in the top 20, ranking 19th — dropping two places on last year. The UK fell behind the Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and Austria.

The report shows that despite several “overlapping crises”, most populations around the world continue to be “remarkably resilient, with global life satisfaction averages in the Covid years (2020-2022) “just as high as those in the pre-pandemic years.”

The report relies on six main factors impacting the happiness of the people of a country – social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and the level of corruption.

Denmark followed Finland to become the second happiest country once again, followed by Iceland, on number three and Israel – five places up – on number four.

Lithuania is the only new country in the top twenty, climbing up more than 30 places since 2017.

Afghanistan and Lebanon continue to be the two unhappiest countries in the survey. The average life evaluations in these two countries is more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) compared to that in the ten happiest countries.

Here are the top ten happiest countries, according to the UN:

• Finland

• Denmark

• Iceland

• Israel

• Netherlands

• Sweden

• Norway

• Switzerland

• Luxembourg

• New Zealand

American economist, Jeffrey Sachs said: “The ultimate goal of politics and ethics should be human well-being. The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a ‘soft’ and ‘vague’ idea but rather focuses on areas of life of critical importance: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues, and good citizenship.”

He added: “We need to turn this wisdom into practical results to achieve more peace, prosperity, trust, civility – and yes, happiness – in our societies.”

The report also showed that various forms of everyday kindness like “helping a stranger, donating to charity, and volunteering,” are above pre-pandemic levels for the second year in a row, according to Canadian social psychologist Lara Aknin.

She also said acts of kindness have been shown to both “lead to and stem” from greater happiness.

The 10 Unhappiest Countries in the World137. Zambia 138. Malawi139. Tanzania140. Sierra Leone141. Lesotho142. Botswana143. Rwanda144. Zimbabwe145. Lebanon146. Afghanistan

Source: upday

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