BY – Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations

WHAT IT SAYS

• 10^th year of the report
• Assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data over a three-year period
• Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the fifth year running
• Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon
• Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia recorded the biggest boosts in wellbeing
• The largest falls in the World Happiness table came in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan.
• Lebanon, which is facing economic meltdown, fell to second from last on the index of 146 countries, just below Zimbabwe
• War-scarred Afghanistan, already bottom of the table last year, saw its humanitarian crisis deepen since the Taliban returned to power last August following the pull-out of US-led troops
• Northern Europeans once again dominated the top spots — with the Danes second to the Finns, followed by the Icelandic, the Swiss and the Dutch
• The United States rose three places to 16th, one ahead of Britain. France climbed to 20th, its highest ranking yet