India Falls Behind Most SAARC Nations in World Happiness Report

It looks like India isn’t a very happy place, according to a United Nations annual report released on March 14. The report, titled the 2018 World Happiness Report, ranks 156 countries. India was placed at No. 133.

India now lags behind most SAARC nations in the index that is based on key factors such as income, healthy life expectancy, social support, absence of corruption, freedom, trust and generosity, that support well being. The war-torn Afghanistan, at 145th spot, comes behind India among the SAARC nations named in the index. Sri Lanka (116), Bangladesh (115), Nepal (101), Pakistan (75), and Bhutan (97) figure ahead of India.

The report, which centered on migration in and between countries, was released before the International Day of Happiness on March 20.

India’s ranking is 11 spots down from last year, when it figured at four places down from the 2016 rank of 118. As per the report, India under-performed in “freedom” and “generosity” in particular. The report observed that Indians were increasingly migrating to other countries, especially to the Gulf nations.

Finland took the top spot from Norway, with not only the most happiest natives but with the happiest immigrants as well. Finland, which has around 5.5 million people, was home to about 300,000 foreigners in 2016. “The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” said John Helliwell, the co-editor of the report and a professor at the University of British Columbia.

Norway, which figures at No. 2  this year, is followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia, respectively, to make up the top 10 happiest countries in the world. These countries also scored the highest on immigrant happiness. “Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose,” Helliwell said.

These top 10 countries have remained consistent in the last two years with just minor swaps in the rankings, the report said.

The United States and the United Kingdom stay in top 20, landing at the 18th and 19th place, respectively. The United States fell four spots due to weakening social support and a perception of increasing government corruption. “The U.S happiness ranking is falling,” Jeffrey D Sachs, another co-editor of the report, said at the report launch. “We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality, less trust, less confidence in government.”

He added: “Governments are increasingly using indicators of happiness to inform their policy-making decisions. U.S policymakers should take note.”

Burundi was marked as the unhappiest nation. The other bottom ranked countries included sub-Saharan countries such as Central African Republic, South Sudan and Tanzania, and West Asia’s Yemen, with the report marking them high on “dystopia.”