World Happiness Report 2023: Rankings & Key Findings - Testbook

Understanding the World Happiness Report

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication that ranks countries based on how happy their citizens perceive themselves. This is different from the Human Development Report (HDR) that focuses on three dimensions – healthy life, knowledge, and standard of living.

The World Happiness Report, first published in 2012, is premised on two key principles:

• Identification of crucial factors that influence well-being and life evaluation across countries.
• Happiness or life evaluation is measured through public opinion surveys.

Each variable is evaluated annually and given a population-weighted average score on a scale of 0 to 10. This score is then tracked over time and compared with other countries.

Typically, the report ranks 150 countries based on several variables, including:

• Real social support,
• GDP per capita,
• Freedom to make life choices,
• Healthy life expectancy,
• Perceptions of corruption, and
• Generosity.

You can also read about the Women Empowerment schemes in the linked article.

Highlights of the World Happiness Report 2023

• Finland has been named the happiest country in the world, followed by Denmark and Iceland in the second and third positions respectively.
• Afghanistan ranks last in the list since 2020, largely due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis following the Taliban takeover.
• In the 2023 edition, India has improved its ranking, moving up to the 126th position out of 137 countries, from its 135th position in the 2022 report.
• However, compared to our neighbouring countries in South Asia, India still ranks below Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, and Bangladesh.
• India outranks only Afghanistan, which is placed at the bottom position of 137.
• Despite being the fastest-growing economy, India has a low rank in the index. Even Russia and Ukraine, despite being at war for over a year, ranked better than India at 70th and 92nd respectively in terms of happiness. This raises questions about the credibility of the report and its evaluation methodology.

The rankings of countries by life evaluations in 2020-2022 are as follows (World Happiness Report 2023 List):

Performance of Countries in the World Happiness Report

• Top Performers:
  • The top three spots in the World Happiness Report are occupied by three countries from the Scandinavian region.
  • Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel, and the Netherlands.
  • Among western nations, the United States secured the 15th spot, while Britain and France came in at 19th and 21st, respectively.
• Worst Performers :
  • Among the South Asian countries, only Afghanistan under the Taliban performed worse than India.
  • Afghanistan ranked 137th, followed by Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
  • Countries such as Nepal (78), Bangladesh (118), Pakistan (108), and Sri Lanka (112) managed to secure better rankings than India.
• India’s Performance:
  • India moved up three ranks from 139th in the 2021 report to 136th in the 2022 edition, and in the 2023 edition, it reached the 126th spot.
  • According to the Happiness Report, India was one of the countries where people’s assessments of their quality of life declined by more than one full point on a scale of 0 to 10 over the past decade.
  • Several factors contribute to the continued unhappiness in the country, including
    • Rapid urbanization and overcrowding in cities
    • Falling incomes and unemployment
    • Negative perceptions of corruption in the country
    • Rising healthcare costs
    • Concerns about women’s safety
    • Environmental pollution
    • Poor mental well-being

Read more about Good Governance – Introduction, Definition & Characteristics , in the linked article.

Why are the connections between happiness, government and the law important?

• Experiences from several nations confirm that the countries with higher GDP and higher per capita income are not necessarily the happiest countries and there exists a link between the state of happiness and rule of law.
• Public policy is now widely acknowledged to aim at making people happier. A new narrative that explores the relationships between law, government, and happiness has gained momentum as a result of this discourse.

Also, read about Social Empowerment – Definition and Government Initiatives , in the linked article.

Significance Of The Happiness Report

• The WHRs have consistently shown that people generally have:
  • Poor perception about governance and law and order, despite high-income levels.
  • A low score of subjective well-being.
  • Poor mental health.
• Over time, happiness has emerged as a crucial indicator to monitor for both nations and corporations.
• Finding the main factors influencing well-being is the report’s objective.

This knowledge is expected to assist nations in formulating strategies targeted at creating happier societies.

Know about the Government Schemes aims to address various issues of the society.

World Happiness Report 2021

India has ranked 139 in the World Happiness Rankings 2021 published in the 9th World Happiness Report. It has been released in March 2021. India’s rank in 2020 was 144. The World Happiness Report 2021 has ranked 140 countries.

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network to the United Nations (UN) publishes the World Happiness Report. The latest edition of the report was published on 20th March 2021 which also celebrated World Happiness Day.

• India’s rank of happiness (average life evaluations) based on 2020 score – 92
• India’s overall rank 2018-2020 – 139

Key Findings of the World Happiness Report 2020

The World Happiness Report 2020 had for the first time ranked the cities by their subjective well-being and measured how the social, urban and natural environments combine to affect happiness. The report used 2017-2019 data. The key findings of the UN’S World Happiness Report as mentioned in the official report, are given below:

1. Despite COVID pandemic crisis, there has been no major change in the rankings of the countries compared to the previous data.
2. Unemployment during the pandemic is associated with a 12% decline in life satisfaction and a 9% increase in negative affect.
3. Finland remains the happiest country in the world. It is the fourth time, Finland found its name at the top.
4. The top 10 countries based on the 2020 score are:
   • Finland
   • Denmark
   • Switzerland
   • Iceland
   • Netherlands
   • Norway
   • Sweden
   • Luxembourg
   • New Zealand
   • Austria
5. Rank of India’s neighbours in World Happiness Rankings 2021:
   • Sri Lanka – 32
   • Nepal – 87
   • Bhutan – Rank not mentioned in the official report
   • China – 84
   • Afghanistan – 149 (At the bottom)
   • Pakistan – 105
   • Bangladesh – 101
   • Myanmar – 126
   • Maldives – 89
6. The countries at the bottom of the rankings are (Bottom 3):
   • Rwanda – 147
   • Zimbabwe – 148
   • Afghanistan – 149
7. The United States ranked 19th in the world happiness rankings 2021.