The United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network published its World Happiness Report 2023 on Monday, in which, for the sixth consecutive year, Finland leads the list of the happiest countries in the world.
The report, prepared by independent experts and which classifies 156 nations according to their level of happiness, considered the assessment of 1,000 citizens of each country during the 2020-2022 period. Respondents, who rated their average standard of living on a scale of 0 to 10, based on 6 key factors: income (GDP per capita), social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
The report notes that acts of kindness lead to and result in greater happiness, and notes that governments are increasingly using this analysis to guide their well-being policies.
What is the ‘top 10’ of the happiest countries in the world?
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Israel
5. Netherlands
6. Sweden
7. Norway
8. Switzerland
9. Luxembourg
10. New Zealand
What are the 10 happiest Spanish-speaking countries?
Costa Rica (No. 23)
Uruguay (N.º 28)
Spain (No. 32)
Chile (No. 35)
Mexico (#36)
Panama (#38)
Nicaragua (#40)
Guatemala (#43)
El Salvador (No. 50)
Argentina (No. 52)
The experts highlight that Spanish-speaking countries “still have half-life assessments that are significantly higher (around 0.5 on a scale of 0 to 10) than those predicted by the model.” The difference has been attributed to a variety of factors, including some unique characteristics of family and social life in Latin American countries.
Regarding Spain, which occupies third place in the Spanish-speaking list, it is in 32nd place in the world ‘ranking’, just behind Estonia and above Italy. This is three positions down compared to the previous year.
The unhappiest countries
Afghanistan and Lebanon continue to occupy the last two places on the list. Their life evaluations were more than five points lower (on a scale of 0 to 10) than in the ten happiest countries.
“The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a ‘soft’ and ‘vague’ idea, but focuses on critically important areas of life: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues, and good citizenship,” said Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned economist at Columbia University and a former adviser to three UN secretaries-general. with RT