The country of celebration where almost every Indian take part to celebrate their small happiness is ranked 122 out of 155 countries in the global list of the happiest countries, according to the World Happiness Report 2017. The worst is India dropping four slots from last year. It is even behind its neighbour Pakistan, Bangladesh, China.
Norway is the happiest country which jumped three spots from last year replacing Denmark which has held the first spot for three years.
It measures happiness on the parameters of GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, business, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption. These parameters are used to generate a happiness score from 1 to 10.
China (79), Pakistan (80), Nepal (99), Bangladesh (110), Iraq (117) and Sri Lanka (120) ranked better than India.
Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Jeffrey Sachs said, “The World Happiness Report continues to draw global attention to the need to create a sound policy for what matters most to people — their well-being.”
He added, “As demonstrated by many countries, this report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations. It’s time to build social trust and healthy lives, not guns or walls. Let’s hold our leaders to this fact.”
According to the report, the top ten countries are Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. The US ranked 14th, dropping down from one spot compared to last year and Britain ranked 19th.
This year the report also gives special attention to the social foundations of happiness including happiness at the workplace.
Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve of the University of Oxford stated, “People tend to spend the majority of their lives working, so it is important to understand the role that employment and unemployment play in shaping happiness.” He added that people who earn well are happier but money is only one measure of happiness. The other significant factors are job variety, work-life balance and the level of autonomy.
The report also suggested, “in rich countries the biggest single cause of misery is mental illness.”
