THE HAPPIEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD
THE UK is among the 20 happiest countries in the world, according to a new report from the United Nations.
The 2018 World Happiness Report gives us a rank of 19th place, just behind America (18), Luxembourg (17) and Belgium (16), and just ahead of the UAE (20).
The four happiest countries are all Nordic: Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
Finland’s free education, generous parental leave and a healthy work-life balance all likely contribute to how happy Finns feel.
In fact, more than eight in every 10 Finns say they trust their country’s police, education and health-care system.
The rest of the 10 happiest countries in 2018 are Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
According to the report, the happiest countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.
The overall 2018 rankings of happiness are based on pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys between 2015-17. There were 156 countries included in the UN’s report - with Burundi coming in last place. Located in the African Union, Burundi is also one of the world’s poorest nations and is struggling to emerge from a 12year ethnic-based civil war. The Central African Republic ranks in 155th place, ahead of South Sudan and Tanzania. The report shows that Togo, a country in West Africa, has seen the greatest change in happiness levels, having moved up 17 places from between 2008-2010 to 2015-17.
This year’s report also gives a flavour of the happiness of domestic and international migrants.
The results were generally positive and, perhaps surprisingly, the ranking of migrants’ happiness is almost exactly the same as for the rest of the population.
Finland, again, takes the top spot, and Denmark and Norway complete the top three. The UK slips one position to 20th place. Syria sits at the bottom of the list, followed by Togo, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, and Comoros. The NHS provides suggestions on a how a person can improve their happiness levels. They include managing stress levels, using humour and enjoying yourself, boosting selfesteem, having a healthy lifestyle, talking and sharing about problems, and building up resilience to cope with life’s ups and downs.