The World Happiness Report is an annual survey by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. It looks at the state of global happiness in 156 countries, ranking countries using the Gallup World Poll and six factors:
- Levels of GDP
- Life expectancy
- Generosity
- Social support
- Freedom
- Corruption income
The World Happiness Report was originally launched in 2012. Since then, only four countries have claimed the top spot:
- Denmark in 2012, 2013 and 2016
- Switzerland in 2015
- Norway in 2017
- Finland in 2018, 2019 and 2020
The United Kingdom was at number 13 (up two spots from 2019), Germany was again at 17, Japan was at 62 (down four spots from 2019), Russia was at 73 (down five spots) and China was at 94 (down one spot).
Afghanistan was named the unhappiest place in the world, followed by South Sudan and Zimbabwe.
A sustained drop has been seen in India’s well-being (now ranked 140th). In fact, India performed so poorly and its population is so significant that it dragged down the entire global happiness levels.
