The story so far: For the fifth consecutive year, Finland secured the top spot in the World Happiness Index.
According to the World Happiness Report (2022), Finland’s score was “significantly ahead of other countries in the top ten”. Denmark secured the second spot, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands and Luxemburg. Lebanon and Afghanistan ranked the lowest.
Produced by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the country’s exploratory magazine, This is Finland stated that Finland, as well as several Nordic countries, have worked to create a society that possessed an “infrastructure of happiness”. It added, “Social systems in Finland and rest of the Nordics support democratic governance and human rights, not to mention education and healthcare that are free or charge only very nominal fees.”
Separately, global benevolence, the report states, increased 25% in 2021 compared to its pre-pandemic level. This was led by helping out strangers, alongside strong growth in donations and volunteering. The top ten countries with the largest gains from 2008-12 to 2019-2021 were, in order, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Togo, Bahrain, Latvia, Benin, Guinea and Armenia.
India ranked 136 among 146 countries in the Index.
What is the World Happiness Report?
As per its website, The World Happiness Report, a publication of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), uses survey data to determine how people evaluate their lives in more than 150 countries. In simpler terms, the report presents a framework gauging people’s qualitative assessment of their lives, progress and well-being through quantitative indicators.
The report aspires to prioritise discussions on happiness among governments and academics for assessment and establishment of social and economic objectives.
United Nations (U.N.) adopted Resolution 65/309 titled “Happiness: Towards a holistic approach to development” in July 2011. They called on governments to impart greater importance to happiness and well-being whilst pursuing social and economic development.
In April 2012, the Royal Government of Bhutan convened a high-level meeting for global representatives on wellbeing and happiness as a new economic paradigm. There, Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley accepted the recommendation to appoint a commission for the same. He proposed that commission could perhaps be co-owned by the U.N. and operate in collaboration with the body’s Secretary General. Chaired by Mr. Thinley and Economist Jeffery D Sachs, the first World Happiness Report was presented to review the evidence for the suggested theme of the meet.
The U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281 proclaiming March 20 as the International Day of Happiness to be observed annually. The World Happiness Report is released every year on the same date.
Bhutan has a self-devised Gross National Happiness Index that assess happiness and well-being of the population using 33 indicators under 9 domains.
The methodology
The rankings (called the World Happiness Index) use both secondary and survey data in order to formulate the ranking.
The parameters for assessment include GDP per capita in terms of Purchasing Power parity (PPP), healthy life expectancy at birth, level of social support, generosity, perceptions on corruption and freedom to make life choices.
Life expectancy and GDP per capita are computed from ready-made data of the World Bank and World Health Organisation (WHO) respectively.
Sample size: The other metrics rely on Gallup World Poll surveys. It reaches out typically to 1,000 people in a country annually. The surveyors state they are unable to reach out to many countries for the annual survey. In countries where they have been able to conduct annual surveys on a recurrent basis, the sample size spikes to 3,000.
Grading operandi: All questions pertaining to the respondent’s evaluation of their life is answered using Cantrill Ladder grading operandi. They are asked to imagine a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst being 0.
The ten countries as per the latest Report. Blue bars depict GDP per capita, Green: social support, Light Green healthy life expectancy, Yellow: freedom to make life choices, Red: generosity, Pink: perceptions of corruption, Purple: comparison to Dystopia | Photo Credit: World Happiness Report 2022
The sub-bars indicate the extent to which each of the six factors may potentially contribute to making life evaluations higher in each country than in ‘Dystopia’.
To assess, social support, the surveys had questions as ““If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”. To assess Generosity, the surveyors ask, “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?”.
Dystopia as a benchmark: Other than this, the Index also establishes a benchmark called ‘Dystopia’.
“The purpose in establishing Dystopia is to have a benchmark against which all countries can be favourably compared (no country performs more poorly than Dystopia) in terms of each of the six key variables, thus allowing each sub-bar to be of positive (or zero, in six instances) width,” the report informs.
General observations of the report
On an average, the latest report states, there has been a long-term moderate upward trend in stress, worry, and sadness in most countries and a slight long-term decline in the enjoyment of life.
Separately, it observed experiences of balance, peace and calm are more prevalent in Western countries as compared to countries in East Asia. Further, the western countries also experience higher levels of satisfaction. Irrespective, majority of people in almost every country prefer a calmer life to an exciting one, the report mentions. “But that preference is no higher in Eastern countries than elsewhere. However, it is particularly high in the poorer countries, especially in Africa, where actual calm is low,” the report reads.
- Finland secured the top spot in the World Happiness Index for the fifth year in a row.
- The World Happiness Report, a publication of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), uses data collected from surveys to determine how people evaluate their lives in more than 150 countries.
