Pakistan and Bangladesh happier than India: UN report

Switzerland has been named the happiest country in the world.

April 24, 2015 01:34 pm | Updated September 06, 2016 12:58 pm IST - United Nations

Places like Ukraine (111), Palestine (108) and Iraq (112) too come up higher than India on the index. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Places like Ukraine (111), Palestine (108) and Iraq (112) too come up higher than India on the index. Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Indians are less happy than their counterparts in Pakistan and Bangladesh, according to a report published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which is a global initiative for the United Nations.

India comes in at the 117th spot out of 158 countries in the 2015 World Happiness Report. The report takes into account GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness. India’s rank dropped six notches from the 2013 report, when it was on the 111th spot.

Pakistan is ranked 81 and Bangladesh, 109. Places like Ukraine (111), Palestine (108) and Iraq (112) too come up higher than India on the index.

Switzerland has been named the happiest country in the world. The other countries in the top five are Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada.

“Increasingly, happiness is considered a proper measure of social progress and goal of public policy,” the report said, adding the happiness index describes how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.

It takes into account factors like GDP per capita, social support of having someone to count on in times of trouble, freedom to make life choices, healthy life expectancy, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

The US is ranked 15, followed by UK (21), Singapore (24), Saudi Arabia (35), Japan (46) and China (84).

Afghanistan and war-torn Syria joined eight sub-Saharan countries in Africa — Togo, Burundi, Benin, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Chad — as the 10 least happy of 158 countries.

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