World Happiness Report 2022: India jumps up three spots; Finland named happiest country

Northern Europeans once again dominated the top spots -- with the Danes second to the Finns, followed by the Icelandic, the Swiss and the Dutch.

Team Newsable

New Delhi, First Published Mar 19, 2022, 3:24 PM IST | Last Updated Mar 19, 2022, 3:24 PM IST

For the fifth straight year, in the United Nations’ World Happiness Report Finland has topped the rankings of the world’s happiest countries. According to the 10th edition World Happiness Report, a total of 146 countries were ranked in this year's World Happiness Index.

Released two days (March 18) before the annual International Day of Happiness, the report, is published by United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network which ranks 150 countries (146 in 2022) on factors such as personal sense of well-being, levels of GDP, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

The World Happiness Index is based on two key ideas – happiness or life evaluation measured through opinion surveys and identifying key elements that determine well-being and life evaluation across countries.

The list, which is in its 10th year, assigns a score on a scale of 0-10, based on an average of data over a three-year-period.

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World Happiness Report 2022 -- India rank:

India saw a marginal improvement in its happiness ranking, jumping up three spots to 136. It was ranked at 139 in last year’s World Happiness Report.

In the latest rankings, among the countries which occupied the top 10 spots in 2021, only Austria dropped out; of the remaining nine, countries have moved up and down. From the other end, Afghanistan was ranked as the unhappiest nation, followed by Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana, respectively.

Northern Europeans once again dominated the top spots -- with the Danes second to the Finns, followed by the Icelandic, the Swiss and the Dutch.

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20 happiest countries in the world:

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Switzerland

5. The Netherlands

6. Luxembourg

7. Sweden

8. Norway

9. Israel