Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: World News
Alex Fleming-Brown
Ever wondered where the happiest place in the world is to live? Then look no further.
The United Nations released its 10th World Happiness Report today and the Scandinavian countries have dominated the top of the table again, with Finland taking first place for the fifth year in a row.
The World Happiness Report creates its rankings based on a range of variables including life expectancy, gross domestic product and the Gallup World Poll.
Free health care, low levels of poverty, and natural beauty are all thought to contribute to Finland’s success in fostering a happy populace.
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Surprisingly, the report included some good news for a world entering the third year of the coronavirus pandemic and war in Eastern Europe.
The report examined three 'acts of kindness' which influence global happiness in 2022.
This list was comprised of helping strangers, volunteering time to organisations, and donating money to charity.
Across all three indicators, engagement in these activities increased in every part of the word. The percentage of people who said they engaged in these activities exceeded the pre-pandemic levels by 25 percent.
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John F. Helliwell, who edited the 2022 rankings and is an Economics professor at the University of British Columbia, was pleased to report that 'helping strangers, volunteering and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world'.
And as for the rest of the report?
Well, for those who are interested, the report found that half of the top ten happiest countries were Scandinavian.
One of the variables used to rank happiness is the Gallup World Poll.
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Since 2020, their pollsters have asked respondents around the world about their experience of 'being in balance' and 'feeling at peace with your life' to account for the less tangible factors which contribute towards happiness.
Lower down in the rankings, the United Kingdom narrowly lost out to the United States securing the 17th place out of the 146 countries that were analysed.
11. Austria
12. Australia
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13. Ireland
14. Germany
15. Canada
16. United States
17. United Kingdom
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18. Czech Republic
19. Belgium
20. France
And sadly, the world's most unhappy countries of 2022 were:
137. Zambia
138. Malawi
139. Tanzania
140. Sierra Leone
141. Lesotho
142. Botswana
143. Rwanda
144. Zimbabwe
145. Lebanon
146. Afghanistan
It is noted in today’s World Happiness Report the that these rankings were established prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We will have to wait until next year to track the fortunes of the two countries which were ranked at number 80 (Russia) and 98 (Ukraine) this year.