And the winner is…Finland and it is at the top with a significant score ahead of the other countries, while Denmark is still in second place, as announced a few days ago by the United Nations Sustainable Development Network.
In third place is Iceland, followed by Switzerland and at the top five are the Netherlands.
The USA is ranked 16th, rising three places from 2021, France is in 20th place, while Greece is in 67th.
The three countries that recorded the largest improvement were Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan fell further behind in the rankings, according to the World Happiness Report, an annual UN-sponsored study that began ten years ago.
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The Nordic countries and their neighbors Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland have a very good score on the measures used by the report to explain its findings: a healthy life expectancy, per capita GDP, social support in times of trouble, low social corruption and trust, generosity in a community where people care about each other and freedom to make basic life decisions, without counting, however, the crime rates of the countries.
This year’s research was done long before the Russian invasion to Ukraine and Russia fall to the bottom half of the world ranking for happiness in the 2022 report, with Ukraine at No. 98 and Russia at No. 80.
At No. 146, Afghanistan ranks last in the 2022 report.