Finland tops again as the world’s happiest country

The World Happiness Report 2019 which ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be, according to their evaluations of their own lives, was launched March 20 at the United Nations headquarters in New York, United States (US).

Produced by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) in partnership with the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the report is edited by Professor John F. Helliwell of the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; Professor Richard Layard, co-director of the Well-Being Programme at LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance; and Professor Sachs, director of SDSN and the Earth Institute’s Center on Sustainable Development.

We are living a moment of transition to a new age and this generates a sense of uncertainty. Social happiness is therefore even more relevant, in order to give a positive perspective and outlook for the present and for the future, said Andrea Illy, Chairman of illycaffè and Member of the Board of Fondazione Ernesto Illy.

The 2019 edition analyzes how life evaluations and emotions, both positive and negative, have evolved over the whole run of the Gallup World Poll, starting in 2005-2006. For life evaluations at the national level, there have been more gainers than losers.

When population growth is factored in, world happiness has fallen in recent years, driven by the sustained downward trend in India. As for emotions, there has been a widespread recent upward trend in negative affect, comprising worry, sadness and anger, especially marked in Asia and Africa, and more recently elsewhere.

Among the 20 top gainers in life evaluations from 2005-2008 to 2016-2018, 10 are in Central and Eastern Europe, five are in sub-Saharan Africa, and three in Latin America. The 10 countries with the largest declines in average life evaluations typically suffered some combination of economic, political, and social stresses. The five largest drops since 2005-2008 were in Yemen, India, Syria, Botswana, and Venezuela.

Focus on happiness and community

This year’s happiness report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes. Special chapters focus on generosity and prosocial behaviour, the effects of happiness on voting behavior, big data, and the happiness effects of internet use and addictions.

The world is a rapidly changing place. How communities interact with each other whether in schools, workplaces, neighborhoods or on social media has profound effects on world happiness, said Professor John Helliwell, co-editor of the report.

The chapter by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network focuses on the epidemic of addictions and unhappiness in America, a rich country yet one where happiness has been declining rather than rising.

This year’s report provides sobering evidence of how addictions are causing considerable unhappiness and depression in the US. Addictions come in many forms, from substance abuse to gambling to digital media. The compulsive pursuit of substance abuse and addictive behaviors is causing severe unhappiness. Governments, businesses, and communities should use these indicators to set new policies aimed at overcoming these sources of unhappiness, Sachs said.

Policy applications of happiness research are collected in a companion SDSN publication Global Happiness Policy Report 2019 that was published in February 2019.

The World Happiness Report, together with the Global Happiness and Policy Report offer the world’s governments and individuals the opportunity to rethink public policies as well as individual life choices, to raise happiness and wellbeing. We are in an era of rising tensions and negative emotions and these findings point to underlying challenges that need to be addressed, concluded Professor Sachs.