New Delhi (NVI): Finland has been named as the world’s happiest country for the fourth year in a row, even amid coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in all areas of life, many of the highest-ranked countries in terms of overall happiness have remained at the top of the list, according to the 2021 World Happiness Report.
Nine of the top 10 countries in the report are European. Finland was followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Austria.
The US ranked 14th on this year’s list.
India has bagged the 139th spot in the UN World Happiness Report 2021. The report ranks 149 countries based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy, and the opinions of residents.
Pakistan is on 105th, Bangladesh on 101st, and China on 84th, according to the report.
People in war-torn Afghanistan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Zimbabwe (148), Rwanda (147), Botswana (146), and Lesotho (145).
This year, the report focuses primarily on the relationship between well-being and the pandemic, which made collecting responses from around the world particularly challenging.
The editors noted that on top of the pandemic’s terrible toll of 2.6 million deaths worldwide, people all over the world are also dealing with greater economic insecurity, anxiety, stress, challenges to mental and physical health, and an overall disruption of every aspect of daily life.
The survey asked participants to indicate on a 1-10 scale how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is, and how generous they are.
-CHK
