Finland has once again scooped the coveted top spot as the happiest country to live in on the World Happiness Report. It is the fourth year in a row that Finland snatched the title, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
The World Happiness Report measures social support, personal freedom, gross domestic product (GDP) and levels of corruption.
South Africa ranks 103 out of 149 countries included.
According to the report, powered by data from the Gallup World Poll and Lloyd’s Register Foundation annually, 2020 was particularly difficult to navigate because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ALSO READ: Ronnie’s Sex Shop, a true South African treasure
“This year’s Happiness Report was faced with a unique challenge in trying to understand what effect the pandemic has had on subjective well-being and vice versa. Of all the factors usually supporting happiness, the most important for explaining COVID-19 death rates were people’s trust in each other, and confidence in their governments,” the report read.
So many variables had to be considered to find the happiest country. The fact that more than two million people died globally and policy decisions on how to respond to factors surrounding the pandemic changed – gathering data was a little different in 2020.
Top 10 happiest countries in the world:
- Finland 🇫🇮
- Iceland 🇮🇸
- Denmark 🇩🇰
- Switzerland 🇨🇭
- Netherlands 🇳🇱
- Sweden 🇸🇪
- Germany 🇩🇪
- Norway 🇳🇴
- New Zealand 🇳🇿
- Austria 🇦🇹
Finland has always ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.
Afghanistan, Lesotho, Bostwana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe ranked at the bottom of the list, making them less desirable to live in.
Things improved for 22 countries who moved up in their rankings, a notable change is China which moved to 84th place from 94th.
“Surprisingly there was not, on average, a decline in well-being when measured by people’s own evaluation of their lives,” John Helliwell, one of the report’s authors, said.
