World Happiness Report 2016 Update

Question: Which country has been named happiest country in the world as per latest World Happiness Report 2016 Update?
(a) Norway
(b) Denmark
(c) Switzerland
(d) Iceland
Ans (b)
Related facts:

  • On 16 March 2016 The United Nations Social Development Network (UNSDN) released World Happiness Report (WHR) 2016 in Rome.
  • World Happiness Report, 2016 list includes 157 member countries.
  • The first, second and third edition of this report was published in 2012, 2013 and 2015 respectively.
  • The World Happiness Report is based on six key variables, each of which digs into a different aspect of life.
  • The six factors are:
  1. GDP per capita
  2. Healthy years of life expectancy
  3. Social support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble)
  4. Trust (as measured by a perceived absence of corruption in government and business
  5. Perceived freedom to make life decisions, and
  6. Generosity (as measured by recent donations).
  • Denmark took the top spot as the ‘happiest country’ in the world, displacing Switzerland
  • Switzerland was ranked second on the list, followed by Iceland (3rd), Norway (4th) and Finland (5th), Canada (6th), Netherlands (7th), New Zealand (8th), Australia (9th) and Sweden (10th).
  • Five Least happy countries are ranked as Rwanda (152nd), Benin (153rd), Afghanistan (154th), Togo (155th), Syria (156th) and Burundi (157th).
  • The U.S. is ranked 13th, United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan are ranked 23, 22 and 53 respectively.
  • In the report, India was ranked 118th out of 157 countries compared to 117th out of 158 countries in the 2015 World Happiness Report.
  • Among BRICS countries the ranking are Brazil (17th), Russia (56th), China (83rd), South Africa (116th) and India (118th).
  • India’s Neighbors are ranked as Nepal (107th), China (83rd), Bhutan (84th), Pakistan (92nd), Bangladesh (110th), Sri Lanka (117th) and Afghanistan (154th).
  • The report said that India was among the group of 10 countries witnessing the biggest happiness declines, along with Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen and Botswana.
  • It should be noted that that none of the top 10 countries in the Asian country.
  • Highest ranked Asian country is Israel ranked 11th place followed by United Arab Emirates at 28th place.
  • The report, released ahead of the UN World Happiness Day on March 20, for the first time gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.
  • The report aims at influencing government policy and is prepared based upon study undertaken by Gallup World Poll.
  • The World Happiness Index ranks nations based upon score of different variables on a scale running from 0 to 10.

Reference:
http://worldhappiness.report/
http://5c28efcb768db11c7204-4ffd2ff276d22135df4d1a53ae141422.r82.cf5.rackcdn.com/HR-V1_web.pdf