Finland retains top spot for six years running as Afghanistan, Lebanon rank low
Nigeria is now 95th happiest nation in the world and sixth in Africa, with 4.981 points, according to the latest edition of the World Happiness Report, released yesterday.
Mauritius tops African countries in the yearly United Nations-sponsored index of 137 nations, with 5.902 points, Algeria (5.329), South Africa (5.275), Congo Brazzaville (5.267), Guinea (5.072), Cote d’Ivoire (5.053) and Gabon (5.035).
The report again named Finland world’s happiest country. The nation, which is home to 5.5 million people, has held the title for six years running.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the ranking a league table of almost 140 countries.
The United Kingdom dropped two places to 19th, while the United States jumped up one place to 15th. France dropped out of the top 20.
Scientists behind the report concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic has not made us unhappier.
Self-reported satisfaction remained “remarkably resilient” worldwide between 2020 and 2022 – despite the pandemic, results revealed.
Despite several overlapping global crises during the period, including the outbreak and war in Ukraine, most countries logged global life satisfaction scores that were just as high as those in the pre-pandemic years, the researchers found.
Interviews with more than 100,000 people across 137 countries revealed that people self-reported significantly higher levels of benevolence — acts of kindness — than before 2020.
The report, now in its 11th year, is based on people’s own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data.
It assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average over a three-year period.
This year, the authors also used data from social media to compare people’s emotions before and after the COVID-19 crisis.
Eight of the 10 happiest nations were found in Europe, with Denmark scooping second place, at 7.58 points.
It was followed by Iceland, Israel and The Netherlands, which recorded scores of 7.53, 7.47 and 7.40, respectively.
Canada, which was ranked 13th, went two places up.
Lithuania is the only new country in the top 20, rising more than 30 places since 2017.
War-scarred Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey, retaining bottom spots, with average life evaluations more than five points lower than in the 10 happiest countries.
Sierra Leone also fared poorly, falling to 135th position, ranking the third unhappiest country with 3.14 points.
