Ever since the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281, ten years ago, proclaiming March 20 to be observed annually as International Day of Happiness, it also started generating a report on the happiest nations in the world.
The report is compiled by US scientists based on surveys asking citizens on how satisfied they are with their lives.
In this year’s World Happiness Report, Finland remained the happiest country in the world for the sixth straight year. Denmark placed second, while Iceland ranked third.
Completing the top ten are Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.
On the other end of the spectrum were Afghanistan and Lebanon, who remained the two unhappiest countries in the survey.
In more familiar territory, the Philippines dropped significantly, falling 16 places to the 76th happiest country in the world, compared to 60th place last year. Despite the famed Filipino resiliency which should be a factor in staying happy despite difficult times, we are ranked 10th in Asia when it comes to happiness.
Happiness may be relative, but a World Happiness Report compiled by scientists is more or less absolute, and a 16 place slide should be a symptom that something is wrong in the Philippines, home of the one of the most resilient people in the planet.
Happiness may not be an important economic or environmental metric, but it has its value when it comes to assessing how a society is generally doing. Governments that genuinely care about their people would want to examine the happiness metric to see how satisfied their people are with their lives, in the society that we are continuing to build together.*
