Happiness is soul of the mind. Here are the 2018 World Happiness Report . The steady decline of the US as the world’s largest economy grapples with a crisis of obesity, substance abuse and depression. The study reveals the US has slipped to 18th place, five places down on 2016.
The top four places are taken by Nordic nations, with Finland followed by Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Burundi in east Africa, scarred by bouts of ethnic cleansing, civil wars and coup attempts, is the unhappiest place in the world.
Strikingly, there are five other nations – Rwanda, Yemen, Tanzania, South Sudan and the Central African Republic – which report happiness levels below that of even Syria.
For the first time the UN also examined the happiness levels of immigrants in each country, and found Finland also scored highest. “Finland has vaulted from fifth place to the top of the rankings this year,” said the report’s authors, although they noted that the other three Nordic countries (plus Switzerland) have almost interchangeable scores.
Top� happiest countries, 2018 (2017 ranking in brackets)
1. �Finland (5)
2. �Norway (1)
3. �Denmark (2)
4. �Iceland (3)
5. �Switzerland (4)
6. �Netherlands (6)
7. �Canada (7)
8. �New Zealand (8)
9. �Sweden (10)
10. Australia (9)
The unhappiest countries, 2018 (2017 ranking in brackets)
147. �Malawi (136)
148. �Haiti (145)
149. �Liberia (148)
150. �Syria (152)
151. �Rwanda (151)
152. �Yemen (146)
153. �Tanzania (153)
154. �S-Sudan (147)
155. �Central African Republic (155)
156. �Burundi (154)
Other Mentions:
133.�India
75. �Pakistan
86. �China
91. �Nigeria
108. �Ghana
124. �Kenya
144. �Zimbabwe
105. �S-Africa
