HELSINKI: Pakistan has once again left behind India and other South Asiannations on the list of the world’s happiest countries, according to theUnited Nations report released here on Wednesday.
The United Nations published the report on the happiest countries on theeve of the International Happiness Day which is celebrated on March 20every year.
Pakistan has showed much improvement, going up to 67th from the 75th ranklast year while the report warned that world happiness has declined inrecent years, driven by a sustained fall in India, which this year rankedin 140th place.[image: an image]
Finland ranked as the world´s happiest country for the second year runningwhile war-torn South Sudan sank to the least contented in The Nordic nationof 5.5 million people, known for their love of forests, lakes and saunas,topped the study which used survey data asking citizens in 156 countrieshow happy they perceive themselves to be, as well as measures such as lifeexpectancy, income and social support.
The other Nordic countries, as well as the Netherlands, Switzerland,Canada, New Zealand and Austria also made the top ten.[image: an image]
As well as performing well on all the indicators, the most contentcountries all tended to have very stable societies, with happiness levelschanging comparatively little since 2005.
Despite the political turmoil brought by Brexit, Britain rose four placesin the rankings to 15th.
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The United States, meanwhile, continued its slide of recent years, droppingone spot to 19th place.
“This year´s report provides sobering evidence of how addictions arecausing considerable unhappiness and depression in the US,” said professorJeffrey Sachs, one of the report´s authors.
The unhappiest nation was South Sudan, where the UN recently said 60percent of people face food insecurity following a bloody civil war whichhas claimed the lives of an estimated 400,000 people.
Other conflict-ridden countries, such as Yemen, Afghanistan and the CentralAfrican Republic, also featured at the bottom of the table.
