World Happiness Report 2023 | 23 Mar 2023

Why in News?

Recently, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network released the World Happiness Report 2023 which ranks countries on happiness.

What is World Happiness Report?

• Since 2012, the World Happiness Report has been released annually around March 20^th as part of the International Day of Happiness celebration.
• The report ranks global happiness basis survey data from people in over 150 countries.
• This year, the report ranked 136 countries.
• The ranking uses six key factors to measure happiness — social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
• Besides ranking the countries, the report also looks at the state of the world in 2023.

What about the Performance of the Countries?

• Top Performers:
  • For the sixth year in a row, Finland has been crowned as the happiest nation, Denmark is at number two, followed by Iceland at number three.
  • Unlike previous years, where the same countries tend to appear in the top 20, there’s a new entrant this year — Lithuania (at the 20^th spot).
• Worst Performers:
  • Afghanistan was ranked as the unhappiest nation, followed by Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, respectively.
• India’s Performance:
  • India ranks at 126^th position out of 136 countries, making it one of the least happy countries in the world.
    • In 2022, India ranked 136^th position out of 146 countries.
  • It even lags behind its neighbouring nations like Nepal, China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

What is Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)?

• In 2012, the UN SDSN was launched under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.
• SDSN promotes integrated approaches to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, through education, research, policy analysis, and global cooperation.

Source:IE