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UN World Happiness Report 2019

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April 17, 2019

Why in news?

United Nations World Happiness Report for 2019 was released recently.

What is the report on?

  • The report ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
  • A sample of individuals from each country is asked to score their happiness on a 1-10 scale.
  • The variation in country scores is then attempted to be explained statistically with the six variables:
  1. GDP per capita
  2. social support
  3. healthy life expectancy
  4. freedom to make life choices
  5. generosity
  6. freedom from corruption
  • The report has been released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) at the United Nations.
  • It is published ahead of the International Day of Happiness marked on March 20th.

What are the highlights?

  • Finland was the happiest nation followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Netherlands.
  • The next five in the top 10 are Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, and Austria in order.
  • Australia replaced Israel in the 11th spot, followed by Costa Rica.
  • The United States came in 19th place.
  • The last spot for the least happy nation, 156, went to South Sudan.

Chart

Where does India stand?

  • Indians have emerged as one of the unhappiest peoples on earth in the Happiness Report.
  • India ranks itself at 140 in happiness out of 156 countries. In other words, it is at the bottom 10% of all countries.
  • India is just at the 50% rank for corruption, and at the bottom 58% for generosity.
  • Unsurprisingly, India is at the bottom 25% for per-capita GDP and longevity.
  • It, however, ranks better for freedom, being within the top 27%.
  • Even favourable aspects for Indians such as strong social/family support had come out poorly in the rankings.
  • In global terms, India’s unhappiness is considerably worse in the ranking than other countries of South Asia and China, and South Africa, and far worse than Latin America.
  • India comes out at the bottom in South Asia in the 2019 report.
  • Moreover, there has been a steady deterioration in Indians’ happiness scores in recent years.
  • On the change in the happiness score over 2015-19, India’s score deteriorated the most in South Asia.

 

Source: Business Standard

Quick Fact

Sustainable Development Solutions Network

  • The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.
  • The SDSN mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development.
  • These include the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Author: Shankar IAS Coaching Center Chennai

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