Good cheer may feel in short supply as the world reels under a global pandemic, but experts at the United Nations on March 20 declared Finland to be the world’s happiest nation for the third year running.

The survey also ranked Helsinki, the Finnish capital, as the happiest city in the world, in an additional boost for the Nordic nation of 5.5 million people best known for its lakes, saunas and long, cold winters.

According to the World Happiness Report 2020, India’s rank slipped to 144. In 2019, India was at 140 and in 2018 the country was placed at 133.

The other happiest countries in the top-10, in descending order, were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, Luxembourg and Austria. The US came in at 18th and Britain was 13th.

Meanwhile, the countries at the bottom of this year’s ranking are those afflicted by violent conflicts and extreme poverty, with Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Afghanistan classed as the world’s least happy countries.

How was the report prepared?

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2020 World Happiness Report ranked 156 countries according to their scores for things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Although the report is based on a wide variety of data, the most important source has always been the Gallup World Poll, which is unique in the range and comparability of its global series of annual surveys. 

The data for this year’s report was collected in 2018 and 2019, and is therefore not impacted by the widespread restrictions imposed by many countries to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

The happiest countries are those “where people feel a sense of belonging, where they trust and enjoy each other and their shared institutions. There is also more resilience, because shared trust reduces the burden of hardships, and thereby lessens the inequality of well-being,” John Helliwell, one of the report's authors, said in a statement.

Highlights of the report

Finland continues to occupy the top spot for the third year in a row, and with a score that is now significantly ahead of other countries in the top ten.

Denmark continues to occupy second place. Switzerland, with its larger increase, jumped from sixth place to third. Last year’s third ranking country, Norway, is now in fifth place with a modest decline in average score. Iceland is in fourth place. Overall, the top 20 are all the same as last year’s top 20, albeit with some changes in rankings.

The biggest gainer was Benin, up 1.64 points and moving from the bottom of the ranking to near the middle. The biggest life evaluation drops were in Venezuela and Afghanistan, down by about 1.8 and 1.5 points respectively. India, with close to a fifth of the global population, saw a 1.2-point decline.

The ten countries with the largest declines in average life evaluations typically suffered some combination of economic, political, and social stresses. The five largest drops since 2008-2012 were in Venezuela, Afghanistan, Lesotho, Zambia, and India, with drops over one point in each case, the largest fall being almost two points in Venezuela.  India is a new entrant to the bottom-ten group. 

Scandinavian cities dominate top-ten list

For the first time since the report began in 2012, it also ranked the happiness of cities around the world based on subjective feelings of well-being. That survey ranked 186 cities worldwide, with Helsinki coming out on top.

In ranking of cities’ happiness around the world, the study looked at current life evaluation – an evaluative measure of subjective well-being and main outcome – and then contrast findings with those on expected future life evaluation of cities’ inhabitants. 

The top ten are dominated by Scandinavian cities. Helsinki (Finland) and Aarhus (Denmark) are ranked first and second. Two of the top ten cities are located in Australia and New Zealand: Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is ranked third and Brisbane (Australia) is ranked tenth. Zurich in Switzerland is at the fourth position.

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