World Happiness Report 2017 Is Out; Norway Tops The List, See The Gainers And Losers
World Happiness Report 2017 is out and last year's No. 4 Norway has been ranked top in the list, and it is followed by Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland in the list. The U.S. stands at 14th on the list, and it lost one position compared to last year. Interestingly, none of the superpowers did an excellent job this time as Germany ranked 16th, U.K. at 19th, Russia at 49th, and China at 79th.
The report is published by United Nation's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and it indicated that the happiness in the U.S. is the story of a reduced happiness. The reports suggest that the decline in happiness is due to the increased corruption and decreasing social support. Interestingly, these factors are making Nordic countries outscore others in the list. Though China made an improvement of four positions this year, the report states the people of China are less happy than 25 years ago. But, it observed that China is making improvements on happiness from 2005.
When it comes to the worst performers of the report, the African countries are struggling as the Central African Republic is in the last position of the survey of 155 countries. It is followed by Burundi at 154, Tanzania at 153, Syria at 152, and Rwanda at 151. The researchers on report do a survey with 1,000 people of each country to arrive the conclusions. "We check with people what they think about their life as a whole," said report co-editor John Helliwell.
Interestingly, there are some positive trends seen in the mid and lower income countries such as Cameron, Sierra Leone, Nicaragua, and Latvia as these countries made some significant improvements in the list of happiness. With regards to top performers, Norway is considered to be an egalitarian society in terms of gender or income. Also, economy plays and important role in the case of Norway as it is a wealthy state. However, the report concludes the happiness is not meant for money, but basic needs are met well.
