The United Nations has released its 10th annual World Happiness Report – just days ahead of the annual International Day of Happiness on March 20. For the fifth year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world, with Denmark coming in second, followed by Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
The World Happiness Report, which ranks global happiness in more than 150 countries around the world, is released every year by the U.N.’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.
Among the countries of the former Union, Lithuania and Estonia have the best ranking – in 34th and 36th place, respectively, Kazakhstan in 40th, Latvia in 42nd, Uzbekistan in 53rd, Moldova in 62nd, Kyrgyzstan in the 64th, Belarus in the 65th, Turkmenistan in the 78th, Russia in the 80th, Armenia in the 82nd, Tajikistan in the 83rd, Azerbaijan in the 92nd, Ukraine in the 98th and Georgia in the 105th.
Besides the happiest countries in the world, the report also looked at the places where people are the saddest. Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest country in the world, with Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana rounding out the bottom five.
UzA