Guess What Is The Happiest Country In The World?

30 Oct 2013

Earth Institute of Columbia University published the 2013 World Happiness Report for the UNSDSN (United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network). The report says that Danish people are the world’s happiest lot. They are followed by the Norwegians, the Dutch and the Finns.

On the basis of a ‘life evaluation score’, the report of 158-pages, ranks more than 150 nations. The score takes into account a variety of factors like government corruption, wealth, job security and political freedom. The survey took its sources from the WVS (World Values Survey), the GWP (Gallup World Poll), the ESS (European Social Survey)and the EVS (European Values Survey).

The top spot was taken by Denmark in 2012 also, receiving the largest combined score on a scale of 0 to 10. This year, the scores ranged from 7.693 (for the 1^st place - Denmark) to 2.936 (last place - Togo). The 2013 World Happiness Report shows more detailed analysis. This was done in a bid to guide bureaucrats to take the citizens’ well-being into consideration while making decisions.

Happy citizens make for better countries

The report found that happiness means, people have more productive lives, have higher earnings, live longer, and are in usual terms 'better' citizens.

Green means happy

The Danish people ranked consistently as the happiest people in the world since as early as the 70s. In November 2011, they even topped the OECD published happiness rankings. The ranking went hand-in-hand with a study from Green Growth Leaders. It showed that the green ambitions of Copenhagen led to a compelling improvement in the Danes’ quality of life. An ongoing trend is illustrated in the rating, that the superior livability offered by Copenhagen and Denmark has a powerful impact on its citizens.