Helsinki: Finland, a picture perfect Scandinavian idyll, continues to top the chart of world's happiest country for the seventh consecutive year, according to an annual UN-sponsored World Happiness Report 2024 released on Wednesday.
As usual, five Nordic countries, known for peaceful living, such as Denmark, Iceland and Sweden found place in the list of top ten countries. The slide has been reported in the United States and Western Europe.
In contrast to Nordic countries, happiness among the young, aged between 15-24 years, has dropped sharply in North America – which recorded more number of young people who are less happy than the old.
The report indicates a sharp rise in happiness among every age group in Central and Eastern Europe, along with East Asia. South Asia, the Middle East and North African countries recorded sharp fall in happiness index at all age groups.
For the first time since the report was published a decade ago, the United States and Germany, who were not among the top 20 happiest countries, saw a slide in rankings. These two countries' ranks have been fallen to 23 and 24 this year respectively.
Afghanistan, which has plunged into a deep humanitarian crisis since the Taliban took power in 2021, languishes at the bottom out of 143 countries surveyed.
Costa Rica and Kuwait became the new entrants in the top 20 list. A large-scale changes in overall happiness in several countries since 2006-10 have been noticed as Afghanistan, Lebanon and Syria reporting the worst downward trends while Eastern European countries witnessed significant increases.
The top countries' list does not contain largest countries of the world. Australia and the Netherlands with a population of over 15 million dis not find places in the list. The rankings are determined by individuals’ own assessments of their lives, along with key variables like GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
The report also highlights that the inequality of happiness has happened in every region except Europe and negative emotions are more frequent now. Top 10 happiest countries in the world Finland Denmark Iceland Sweden Israel Netherlands Norway Luxembourg Switzerland Australia.
What is India's rank?
India ranks 126th in the World Happiness Index 2024, the same as last year. According to the report, older age is associated with higher life satisfaction in the country. Older men in India are more satisfied with life than older women, but older women report higher life satisfaction than their male counterparts, the report said.
Factors including social relationships, social engagement, living arrangements, education, income, caste and religion impact life satisfaction among Indians are determinants
