VATICAN CITY – Finland is the world’s happiest country, according to anannual survey issued on Wednesday that put Burundi at the bottom of thehappiness index and found Americans were getting less happy even as theircountry became richer.
The U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 WorldHappiness Report ranked 156 countries according to their scores for thingssuch as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, socialfreedom, generosity and absence of corruption.
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Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot.The 2018 top-10, as ever dominated by the Nordics, is: Finland, Norway,Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden andAustralia.
The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britainwas 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.
One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problemssuch as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in theUnited States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than inmost other countries.
For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses avariety of polling organizations, official figures and research methods,ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries.
Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country astatistical double-gold status.
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The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civilwar for seven years.
“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistencybetween the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” said ProfessorJohn Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia.
“Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels ofhappiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of otherresidents in their new countries,” he said.
“Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to lesshappy countries lose.”
Asked how the current political situation in the United States could affectfuture happiness reports, Sachs said:
“Time will tell, but I would say that in general that when confidence ingovernment is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality ishigh and health conditions are worsening … that is not conducive to goodfeelings.”
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While income per capita has increased markedly in the United States overthe last half century, the happiness index has been hit by weakened socialsupport networks, a rise in perception of corruption in government andbusiness and declining confidence in public institutions.
“We obviously have a social crisis in the United States: more inequality,less trust, less confidence in government,” the head of the SDSN, ProfessorJeffrey Sachs of New York’s Columbia University, told Reuters as the reportwas launched at the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
“It’s pretty stark right now. The signs are not good for the U.S. It isgetting richer and richer but not getting happier.”