Amid the gloomy times of coronavirus that engulfed the world last year and created havoc all around the globe that resulted in 2.6 million deaths worldwide, massive lay-offs, and a decline in mental health, there has been no change at the top spot of the world happiest countries ranking.
Finland has once again for the fourth running year emerged as the world’s happiest country, with Denmark coming second followed by Switzerland, Iceland, and the Netherlands, according to United Nation’s World Happiness report.
Norway, which ranked in the top three in the 2019 report, slipped to the eighth spot. Making a jump of four shots, the United States is ranked at 14th. In 2019, it was ranked 19th. US’s neighbor Canada slipped to 15th place and New Zealand, the only non-European country on the list, slipped one spot to 9th place.
Germany climbed three spots to 13th and The UK slipped five spots from 2020, coming in at 18th. One of the biggest surprises on the list was China, coming in at 19th place. China had a very dramatic leap from 94 in 2020 to 19 in 2021.
Meanwhile, India has been ranked at 139 out of 149 countries on the list.
World’s 20 Happiest Countries
1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Denmark
4. Switzerland
5. Netherlands
6. Sweden
7. Germany
8. Norway
9. New Zealand
10. Austria
11. Israel
12. Australia
13. Ireland
14. United States
15. Canada
16. Czech Republic
17. Belgium
18. United Kingdom
19. China
20. France
Apart from the happiest countries, the happiness report also looked at some of the unhappiest countries in the world. Afghanistan is the unhappiest nation in the world. African nations including Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Botswana, and Lesotho are some of the unhappiest countries in the world.
What is World Happiness Report?
It is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness and ranks 149 countries by how happy their citizens are. The World Happiness report 2021 focused on the effects of COVID-19 and how people have fared in the pandemic. The annual report ranks nations based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy, and the opinions of residents.