India at 126th position in World Happiness Report; below Sri Lanka, Pak

India was ranked even below Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. In Asia, India is only better off than Afghanistan that was placed at 137th position

India was placed at the 126th position out of 137 countries in the World Happiness Report released on Monday by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. 

India was ranked even below Pakistan, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. In Asia, India is only better off than Afghanistan which was placed at 137th position.

War-struck Ukraine also figured above India at 92 and Russia was positioned at 72.

According to the World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world. It is the sixth consecutive win for Finland. 

The report measures happiness based on GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and low corruption. The annual report was released on March 20, which is celebrated as International Day of Happiness. The report is based on global survey data from people in 137 countries.

Country rankings this year are based on life evaluations in 2020, 2021, and 2022, so all of the observations are drawn from years of high infection and deaths from Covid-19, the report said.

"2022 was a year of crises, including the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, worldwide inflation, and a range of local and global climate emergencies. We thus have more evidence about how life evaluations, trust, and social connections together influence the ability of nations, and of the world as a whole, to adapt in the face of crisis. Our main analysis relates to happiness as measured by life evaluations and emotions, how they have evolved in crisis situations, and how lives have been better where trust, benevolence, and supportive social connections have continued to thrive," the report said.

Nordic countries remained on top, repeating the previous year's pattern. Denmark was ranked number 2 and Iceland was positioned at number 3.

"Finland remains in the top position, for the sixth year in a row. Lithuania is the only new country in the top twenty, up more than 30 places since 2017. War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey, with average life evaluations more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) than in the ten happiest countries. This year’s report uses three measures to study the inequality of happiness. The first is the happiness gap between the top and the bottom halves of the population. This gap is small in countries where almost everyone is very unhappy, and in the top countries where almost no one is unhappy, " the report said.