Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
According to the recent World Happiness Report for 2016, Finland has once again been ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world finding herself in fifth place which is one place above last term.
The findings in the fourth World Happiness Report also indicated that highest ranked countries were those where equality thrives. Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland all make up the top five countries while Burundi, the war torn Syria, Togo, and Afghanistan were recognized as the least happy countries in the World.
The yardsticks used to compile these reports in all the 156 countries involved were per capita gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, social security, freedom of choice and association, generosity and trust.
Other countries included in this report are the United States in 13th position, the UK 23rd, China 83rd, and India was 118th.
These reports identified North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe as the happiest regions while Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia were the only regions with average well-being rating of less than 5 out of 10.
The report was compiled by the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and it’s an analysis of Gallup World Poll data generated from survey including about 1000 people from each of the countries included and they were all asked to evaluate their lives on a scale of zero to 10. This report has been compiled every year for the past 3 years, which is what makes this the fourth edition.
