(Helsinki) Finland was designated Friday “the happiest country in the world” for the fifth year in a row, in a ranking where Lebanon and Afghanistan close the march and where France reached its best rank.
Posted at 10:43 a.m.
With a score of 7.82 out of 10, the Nordic country of 5.5 million inhabitants is ahead of Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands, in an unchanged top of the ranking and dominated by European countries and from Northern Europe in particular.
“The three strongest increases were in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The biggest setbacks in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan”, according to the “World Happiness Report”, an annual study commissioned by the United Nations launched a decade ago.
Lebanon, shaken by unrest and a serious economic crisis, thus falls to the penultimate place, with 2.95 points, behind Zimbabwe and just ahead of Afghanistan, dead last again this year with a score of 2, 40.
The study, published since 2012, mainly uses Gallup polls asking residents for their own level of happiness, cross-referenced with GDP and assessments regarding the level of solidarity, individual freedom and corruption, to arrive at an overall score.
Germany and Canada drop one place in the 14and square and 15and respectively, just ahead of the United States (16and+3), according to the official ranking of about 150 countries, which weights data from the last three years.
France is 20and (+1), “its best ranking since the study exists”, while the United Kingdom is 17and (unchanged).
Among the other great powers, Brazil is in 38and position (-3), Japan 54and (+2), while Russia fell to 80and rank (-4) in this edition completed before before the invasion of Ukraine.
China leaps 12 places to 72and position, India remains far at the bottom of the ranking (136and) but gains 3 places.
“The lesson of the World Happiness Report in recent years is that social solidarity, generosity between people and honesty in government are crucial for well-being,” commented co-author Jeffrey Sachs.
“World leaders should take this into account,” he pleads.
The Nordic countries have made a raid since the creation of the report: before Finland, Norway won in 2017 and Denmark had long occupied the first place.