Ranking the Happiest Countries in the World

Assessing happiness

SDSN highlight that their rankings are not an index like the longer running Human Development Index (HDI) and more recent Happy Planet Index (HPI). These are often influenced by sponsors, be they governmental or corporate. They also draw only partly on self-assessment — or make no use of them at all.

SDSN stress that their findings draw heavily on data from population samples in each country who assess happiness through a life evaluation, producing subjective wellbeing data. That is not to say the report is without a scientific basis. Economic and social influences are considered along with the survey (namely GDP per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption), but the focus is on how happy citizens say they are; not how happy statisticians think they should be.

The geography of happiness

Unsurprisingly, there is a strong correlation between unhappiness and the poorest, most fragile countries. Troubled African states along with countries suffering under conflict and instability such as Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar account for the vast majority of the lowest rankings.

Also rather predictably, North American and European (particularly Scandinavian) countries feature highly in the rankings. Although, spare a thought for Bulgaria, by far the unhappiest country in Europe at number 134 — well below its neighbours.

The rankings

Download the full happiness report here.

This article originally appeared on Atlas & Boots — Travel with Abandon and is republished here with permission.