Nigeria tops 71 countries in latest global happiness rankings
Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja
As the world marks the International Day of Happiness, Nigeria is ranked 85 out of 156 countries and second in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019.
This was contained in the latest annual Global Happiness Policy Report produced by the Global Happiness Council, and released on Wednesday to mark the International Day of Happiness.
The report which was edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, et al ranks countries on six key variables that support wellbeing: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.
This is an improvement as the most populous nation in Africa was ranked 91st in 2018.
Meanwhile, for the second year in a row, Finland came first as the happiest country in the world, followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands.
The world’s least happy country is South Sudan, followed by Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.
This year, the focus was on happiness and community: how happiness has been changing over the past dozen years, and how information technology, governance and social norms influence communities.
The report showed that the annual data for Finland have continued their modest, but steady upward trend since 2014.
The United States came in the 19th place, dropping one spot since last year and a total of five spots since 2017.
“What stands out about the happiest and most well connected societies is their resilience and ability to deal with bad things,” John F. Helliwell, one of the editors of the report, said.
“After the 2011 earthquake and now the terrorist attack in Christchurch, with high social capital, where people are connected, people rally and help each other and (in after the earthquake) rebuild immediately,’’ he added.
