Mint Primer | Happiness report: Why it has raised eyebrows in India
The World Happiness Report 2024, a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and WHR’s Editorial Board, is out. Mint evaluates its metrics to explain why it may not be the final word on happiness. India is ranked 126 out of 143 nations surveyed.
The ranking, based on an individual’s own assessment rather than any index, looks at six variables, including per capita gross domestic product (GDP), social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption. India fared poorly on most parameters. While the rank in 2024 is same as the previous year, it has slipped in its performance between 2006-10 survey period and 2021-23.
None of the Asian countries have done well. Singapore, ranked 30, is the happiest nation in Asia. China is ranked 60.
Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world. Finns are the happiest people in the world. For the seventh successive year, Finland has topped the ranking.
In fact, Nordic nations, including Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, apart from Finland, continued to dominate this ranking, bagging the top four of the five spots. Israel has come fifth, followed by Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia. Canada was ranked 15 and the UK at 20.
For the first time, the US fell out of the top 20 ranking and was placed at 23, while Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 ranking. Germany and France came at 24 and 27, respectively. Finns are happy because they do not link happiness to financial prosperity, instead, develop a strong bond with nature and have well-kept work-life balance.
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