World Happiness Report 2022: What is it all about? 

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a United Nations non-profit entity, has brought out the tenth edition of its World Happiness Report on March 18, 2022. According to the report, Finland has been ranked first in the global happiness index. India’s rank, however, is 136. The report measures happiness through opinion surveys and identifies key elements that determine well-being and life evaluation across countries. The World Happiness Report is celebrating its 10^th edition this year. Here is everything you need to know about this UN report. 

How does the World Happiness Report work? 

The World Happiness Report rates 150 nations based on a variety of characteristics including real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, and the freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. Every year, each variable calculates a populated-weighted average score on a scale of 0 to 10, which is then tracked over time and compared to other countries.  

The majority of the data in the report comes from the Gallup World Poll, an American analytics and advisory company. The rankings are based on a three-year average of data from 2019 to 2021. The World Happiness Report uses global survey data to report how people in more than 150 nations (146 in 2022) evaluate their own lives. 

Top 10 countries in the World Happiness Report 2022 

According to the latest report, most countries have seen a long-term moderate increase in stress, worry, and sadness, as well as a minor long-term reduction in life enjoyment. Attributes such as balance, peace, and calm are more common in Western countries than in East Asian countries, suggests the survey. In addition, western countries have higher levels of contentment. Here is the list of top 10 happiest countries.  

1. Finland 

2. Denmark 

3. Iceland 

4. Switzerland 

5. The Netherlands 

6. Luxemborg 

7. Sweden 

8. Norway 

9. Israel 

10. Norway 

Where does India stand in the World Happiness Report through the years? According to the World Happiness Report's (WHR) Happiness Index, India's ranking has slipped over time.  

2022: Rank 136 

2021: Rank 139 

2020: Rank 144 

2019: Rank 140 

2018: Rank 133 

2017: Rank 122 

2016: Rank 118 

2015: Rank 117 

History of the World Happiness Report   

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 65/309 ‘Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development’ in July 2011. The UN encouraged member countries to assess their citizens' happiness and use the data to inform public policy. On April 2, 2012, this was followed by the first UN High Level Meeting called ‘Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm’, which was chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Bhutanese Prime Minister, Jigmi Thinley. Bhutan uses gross national happiness instead of GDP as its main development indicator. 

The first World Happiness Report, which drew international attention, was released on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the United Nations High Level Meeting, Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm. The first report addressed the current state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, as well as policy implications based on case studies. The second World Happiness Report was released in 2013, followed by the third in 2015. It has been released on the 20th of March every year since 2016, to coincide with the United Nations' International Day of Happiness.