The World Happiness Report is released annually. It is widely considered a benchmark of how people feel about the nations where they live. Gallup did the research. It includes 147 countries.
The researchers poll 1,000 people per nation. They are asked to rank several issues on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the best. The first cut at the data includes GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.
The researchers then take more slices of the data. This is broken into eight chapters. Among these are kindness and happiness, sharing meals, household size and family bonds, social connections among young people, how bonds affect people in despair, unhappiness, and distrust, and the effects of money on happiness. This information is then broken into more categories used to rate each of the 147 nations. And then each country is given a score.
Finland topped the list, followed by several other Scandinavian nations. Denmark was in second place, followed by Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Norway ranked seventh. The US ranks 24th.
Afghanistan was at the bottom of the list. Sierra Leone was just above it, and Lebanon was above that. Afghanistan has had civil wars for decades. It is currently run by the Taliban. Recently, it has been at war with Pakistan. Some attacks have killed many children.
The country of 40 million people ranks at or near the top in measurements by the CIA Factbook. Life expectancy at birth is 54, which ranks it 227th in the world. Real GDP per capita is $2,000, which ranks it 205th. Given the wars that seem never-ending, its score is unlikely to improve.
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