The World Happiness Report released its annual ranking of the happiest countries in the world and while Australia narrowly missed a spot in the top 10, it was ranked pretty high at number 12 on the list. The report dropped earlier this week with a ranking of the happiest countries, the least happy and those in between. Australia ranked 12th behind Austria and ahead of Canada, Ireland, the United States, Germany, Belgium, Czechia, the United Kingdom and Lithuania.
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network looks at six key factors to determine the rankings of more than 150 countries including social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and low corruption. The report used survey data from the Gallup World Poll that asked participants from each country to evaluate their life satisfaction over a three-year average from 2020 to 2022.
Unsurprisingly, Finland was voted the happiest country in the world for the sixth year running owing to “its strong feelings of communal support and mutual trust” that helped the country navigate the pandemic smoothly. Denmark, Iceland, Israel and the Netherlands rounded out the top 5. War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon were deemed the two unhappiest countries in the survey. Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Malawi, Comoros and Tanzania have also ranked among the least happy countries on the list.
According to the report, the same countries typically appear in the top 20 with the exception of Lithuania which was a new entry at number 20.
Read the full report here.