The 2016 World Happiness Report has been released ahead of the UN World Happiness Day on March 20th 2016 by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network of the United Nations.
Following a proposal from the Prime Minister of Bhutan, a Buddhist Kingdom in South Asia with a Minister of Happiness and a day of happiness, the UN General Assembly declared March 20th as the World Happiness Day in 2012.
The report is an analysis of Gallup World Poll data generated from surveys of 1,000 people in each country every year for three years. They were asked to evaluate their lives on a ladder scale of zero to 10.
According to the report, the key ingredients of happiness are; longer life expectancies, more social support, more freedom to make life choices, lower perceptions of corruption, more generosity, less inequality of happiness and high gross domestic product per capita.
The top ten on the list were:
Denmark
Switzerland
Iceland
Norway
Finland
Canada
Netherlands
New Zealand
Australia
Sweden
Other countries were ranked as follows: United States (13), Israel (11) and Austria (12). Germany (16), United Kingdom (23), Japan (53), Russia (56) and China (83) and India (118) UK (23), Brazil (17), and Nigeria (103).
The bottom ten on the list were:
Madagascar
Tanzania
Liberia
Guinea
Rwanda
Benin
Afghanistan
Togo
Syria
Burundi
