The World Happiness Report for 2024 was released earlier this week, noting that the top 10 countries in the list have remained the same since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Finland remained the world’s happiest country for a seventh straight year in the annual UN-sponsored Report published on Wednesday. India ranked 126, the same as last year, in the happiness index.
Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland. The United States and Germany have fallen in the rankings, making way for several Eastern European nations to rise on the list.
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Meanwhile, Afghanistan was deemed as the least happy country, after Congo, Sierra Leone, Lesotho and Lebanon. The United States fell in ranking from 16th spot last year to the 23rd spot this year. This year, Canada took the 15th spot while the UK was at the 20, Germany at 24 and France at 27. Among Middle Eastern nations, the UAE was ranked at 22 and Saudi Arabia at 28. Among Asian nations, Singapore was at 30, Japan at 50 and South Korea at 51.
The report observed that in India, older age is associated with higher life satisfaction. However, older Indian women reported lower life satisfaction than older men, it added. Education and caste played key roles, with older adults with secondary or higher education and those of higher social castes reporting higher life satisfaction than their counterparts without formal education and those from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the report said.
The report noted the happiest countries no longer included any of the world’s largest countries.
“In the top 10 countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations over 30 million.”
Worldwide, women were less happy than men in every region, with the gender gap widening as they aged, said the report.
While ranking happiness in young people (aged 30 and below), Lithuania, Israel, Serbia, Iceland and Denmark ranked in the top five slots, with Finland being delegated to the seventh rank. India ranked at 127th spot in this.
However, when it came to ranking happiness in old people (aged 60 and above), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland — all Nordic nations — ranked the highest, with India occupying the 121st spot. “Countries ranking highest for the old are generally countries with high overall rankings, but include several where the young have recently fared very poorly,” the report observed.
The World Happiness Report is published annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and takes into account six variables — GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption. It is supported by taking the average life evaluation data gathered by the Gallup polls for the 2021-23 period.
The top 10 happiness rankings (worldwide):
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Israel
6. Netherlands
7. Norway
8. Luxembourg
9.Switzerland
10.Australia
The top 10 happiness rankings (Asia):
1. Singapore
2. Taiwan
3. Japan
4.South Korea
5. Philippines
6. Vietnam
7. Thailand
8. Malaysia
9. China
10. Mongolia
