DUSHANBE, March 17, 2016, Asia-Plus –
World Happiness Report 2016
has ranked Tajikistan 100th among 157 nations in terms of happiness.
In 2015, Tajikistan was ranked in 106th place of the assessment. However, Tajikistan was rated the least happy country in Central Asia.
This year, Uzbekistan tops the Central Asian nations in terms of happiness. It was ranked 49th, followed by Kazakhstan, which was ranked 54th. Turkmenistan was ranked in 65th place and Kyrgyzstan came in 85th place.
Burundi was rated the world”s least happy country to live in. Nine other sub-Saharan African countries, along with Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, made up the rest of the bottom 13.
The top 13 this year were Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Israel, Austria and the US.
Denmark, which has a population of around 5.6 million, knocked Switzerland into second place to take the title of the happiest country in the
2016 World Happiness Report
.
A combination of a relatively high GDP, good healthy life expectancy and high levels of social support gave the country its edge over the other nations.
The report, which is the fourth of its kind, was released ahead of the UN”s World Happiness Day this weekend.
The report uses six components to rank 157 countries by happiness levels: per capita gross domestic product (GDP); healthy years of life expectancy; social support as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble; trust as measured by perceived absence of corruption in government and business; perceived freedom to make life decisions; and generosity as measured by recent donations.
The first World Happiness Report was released on April 1, 2012. It drew international attention as the world”s first global happiness survey. The report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications; along with case studies. In September 2013 the second World Happiness Report offered the first annual follow-up and annual reports are now issued. The report uses data from the Gallup World Poll.
In the reports, leading experts in several fields–economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, and more–describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations. Each report is organized by chapter that delves deeper into issues relating to happiness, including mental illness, the objective benefits of happiness, the importance of ethics, policy implications, and links with the OECD”s approach to measuring subjective well-being and the Human Development Report.
