Traditionally, nations economic health is measured by their wealth. But increasingly, some leaders and policymakers are turning their focus to a more human notion of well-being: happiness.
That’s the motivation behind the World Happiness Report, an analysis published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a UN organization that aims to fight poverty by stoking sustainable development.
Switzerland is the world’s cheeriest country, according to the report. Maybe it’s the chocolate.
Iceland came in second in the ranking, followed by Denmark and Norway. Canada moved up two spots from last year to claim fifth. This is the third time the group has released the list since 2012.
Pakistan has been ranked as the world’s 81st happiest country with an average quality of life rank of 5.194. Our arch-rival India is still way behind and has been ranked 117th having an average quality of life rank of 4.565.
The ranking was created by “leading experts across fields—economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy” and others, according to the organization. To come up with a happiness rating, the experts took into account a wide variety of metrics.
The annual rankings, first published in 2012, aim to quantify happiness using Gallup World Poll data that asked people to evaluate the quality of their own lives on a scale of zero to 10.
The report also attempts to attribute the differences in rankings to differences in six variables: GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support systems, trust in government and business, perceived freedom, and generosity.
This article was originally published by Quartz.
