Finland is again the happiest country in the world, Belgium is in fourteenth place
Helsinki. – © AP
Finland has again been crowned happiest nation in the world, for the eighth year in a row. Belgium takes the fourteenth place, the highest score ever, in the ranking of the World Happiness Report, an annual study sponsored by the United Nations.
Just like last year, the Scandinavian countries dominate the top 10, with Finland in the lead, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. Norway is the seventh country with the happiest population. Our Benelux neighbors are also in the top 10, with the Netherlands in fifth place and Luxembourg in ninth place. Costa Rica, in sixth place, and Mexico, in tenth place, the top 10 arrived for the first time.
Belgium rose from the sixteenth to fourteenth place, the highest score ever, and thus surpassed the fifteenth place it achieved in 2011. The Germans are in 22nd place and the French on the 33rd.
The US is in 24th place, the worst performance ever. Russia and China are in the 66th and 68th place respectively.
Of the countries where conflicts are raging, Ukraine is in 111th place, Yemen on the 140th and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the 141st. The Palestinian territories are in 108th place and Israel in the eighte. There are no data about Syria or Sudan.
The ranking has 147 countries. Lebanon (144), Sierra Leone (146) and Afghanistan (147) are the fence closers.
The study investigates various indicators that generally make people happier, such as social support (in the form of family ties or friendships), health, freedom, generosity (in the form of charity donations), perception of corruption and gross domestic product (GDP).
