Finland ranks world’s happiest country for 5th year in a row

Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the word for the fifth consecutive year, according to the latest report of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network 2022, powered by data from the Gallup World Poll and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

As in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, Finland again takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, said the report published on Friday.

Denmark secured the second place on the list, followed by Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Sweden, Norway, Israel and New Zealand.

Afghanistan ranked at the very bottom of the list of 146 countries, followed by Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Botswana.

This year's report comes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended lives around the world.

"COVID-19 is the biggest health crisis we've seen in more than a century," said John Helliwell, Professor of Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, adding, “now that we have two years of evidence, we are able to assess not just the importance of benevolence and trust, but to see how they have contributed to well-being during the pandemic."

The World Happiness Report has been based on two key ideas: that happiness or life evaluation can be measured through opinion surveys, and that identified key determinants of well-being and thereby explain the patterns of life evaluation across countries, said the report.

"A decade ago, governments around the world expressed the desire to put happiness at the heart of the global development agenda, and they adopted a UN General Assembly resolution for that purpose. The World Happiness Report grew out of that worldwide determination to find the path to greater global well-being. Now, at a time of pandemic and war, we need such an effort more than ever,” said Jeffrey D Sachs, Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.

Click World Happies Report to read detail.