2013 World Happiness Report: African Nations Are The Least Happiest Globally

 

Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo are the least satisfied with their lives, the 2013 World Happiness Report released Monday by Columbia University’s Earth Institute has revealed.

Of the 156 countries, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden, Canada, Finland, Austria, Iceland  Australia are the world's happiest countries.

The United States came in at number 17 in the world in terms of overall happiness, but it still lags behind Israel (11) the United Arab Emirates (14) and Mexico (16). The report ranks the United Kingdom as the 22nd happiest country in the world. Other major nations included Germany (26), Japan (43), Russia (68) and China (93).

Of the 156 countries, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden, Canada, Australia are the world's happiest countries.

"On a regional basis, by far the largest gains in life evaluations in terms of the prevalence and size of the increases have been in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Sub-Saharan Africa", the report said.

Those looking for greater happiness and satisfaction in life should head to northern Europe, but steer clear of Egypt and countries worst hit by the eurozone crisis, according to the report.  

When Egypt was weighed on the scale of 1 to 10 -- with 10 rated as happiest -- Egypt averaged 4.3 in 2012, compared to 5.4 in 2007.

Angola, Zimbabwe and Albania experienced the largest increases across all the countries surveyed.

Governments seeking to improve the happiness of their populations should spend a higher proportion of their health budgets on mental illness, which is the single biggest "determinant of misery" in countries assessed, the study authors said.

The 2013 World Happiness Report comes on the back of a growing global movement calling for governments and policy makers to reduce their emphasis on achieving economic growth and focus on policies that can improve people's overall well-being.

The UN first encouraged member countries to measure and use the happiness of their people to guide public policies in July 2011.

"It is important to balance economic measures of societal progress with measures of subjective well-being to ensure that economic progress leads to broad improvements across life domains, not just greater economic capacity," the report said.

"People can be unhappy for many reasons -- from poverty to unemployment to family breakdown to physical illness," the report said. "But in any particular society, chronic mental illness is a highly influential cause of misery.

"If we want a happier world, we need a completely new deal on mental health," it said.