World Happiness Report 2022 | 19 Mar 2022

Why in News?

Recently, the World Happiness Report 2022 was published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

• This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the World Happiness Report.

What is the World Happiness Report?

• Published since 2012, the World Happiness Report 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 report usually ranks 150 countries based on several factors such as real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
  
  • This year, the report ranked 146 countries.
• Every year, each variable measures a populated-weighted average score on a scale of 0-10 that is tracked over a period of time and further compared with other countries.
• This year, countries which ranked in the top 10 last year, moved upwards and downwards.

What about the Performance of the Countries?

• Top Performers:
  
  • Finland has been named the world's happiest country for the fifth year running followed by Denmark.
  • The biggest gains in happiness have taken place in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.
• Worst Performers:
  
  • Afghanistan was ranked as the unhappiest nation, followed by Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana, respectively.
• India’s Performance:
  
  • India saw a marginal improvement in its ranking, jumping three spots to 136, from 139 a year ago.

Source: TH