…Libya leads in Africa
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation ranked 102nd happiest nation in the world out of 143 countries, with Libya ranking the happiest in Africa.
In its annual report released on Wednesday, the United Nations World Happiness Report showed that Nigeria fell by seven positions last year where it ranked 95th, indicating that more Nigerians are unhappy.
Libya at 66th position leads the continent as the happiest nation followed by Mauritius, South Africa, Algeria, Congo, Mozambique and Gabon ranking at 70th, 83rd, 85th, 89th, 90th and 95th accordingly.
Meanwhile, Finland has retained its crown as the world’s happiest country for the seventh consecutive time as the United States of America finds its way out of the top 20 on the back of a drop in wellbeing of young Americans.
Denmark and Iceland remained second and third in the world, respectively, according to the report.
For the first time, the US moved out of the top 20 nations and fell to 23rd from 15th, “driven by a large drop in the wellbeing of Americans under 30,” the report stated.
Other leading economies as Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China and Russia ranked 15th, 20th, 24th, 51st, 60th, 72nd respectively.
The report offers insights into the subjective well-being of people worldwide, going beyond mere economic indicators to capture the holistic experience of happiness.
“The World Happiness Report reflects a worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and well-being as criteria for government policy.
“It reviews the state of happiness in the world today and shows how the science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness,” the report said.
It noted that data were observed using six variables – GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. However, Cantril ladder life-evaluation questions were used in arriving at the rankings.
“Our happiness rankings are not based on any index of these six factors – the scores are instead based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, in particular, their answers to the single-item Cantril ladder life-evaluation question,” the report stated.
According to the report, young Nigerians under the age of 30 are happier as the country ranked 108th in this category out of 143 countries.
However, in the adult category, the country ranked 130th showing that the older Nigerians are less happy.
