World Happiness Report – 2017
- The first World Happiness Report was published in April, 2012, in support of the UN High Level Meeting on happiness and well-being.
- Norway tops the global happiness rankings for 2017, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.
- Happiness is both social and personal – In richer countries the within-country differences are not mainly explained by income inequality, but by differences in mental health, physical health and personal relationships: the biggest single source of misery is mental illness. Income differences matter more in poorer countries, but even their mental illness is a major source of misery.
- Happiness has fallen in America – The USA is a story of reduced happiness. In 2007 the USA ranked 3rd among the OECD countries; in 2016 it came 19th. The reasons are declining social support and increased corruption and it is these same factors that explain why the Nordic countries do so much better.
Happiness is a multifaceted concept and cannot and will not depend on materialistic wellbeing of an individual. Today, despite increasing per capita income and luxuries in life, a disturbing trend is seen of decreasing happiness quotient in the life of an individual. Read the report for much deeper understanding of variance in happiness among nations and factors responsible for the same.
