The happiest countries have the happiest immigrants

Finland is the happiest country in the world, according to the latest World Happiness Report.

Norway, last year’s winner, came in second place in the 2018 report. It’s followed by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland. The Netherlands came in sixth place this year, followed by Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

The World Happiness Report was released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations on March 14, days before World Happiness Day on March 20. The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

The 10 happiest countries were also 10 of the top 11 spots in the rankings of immigrant happiness. “The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” to quote the news release.

The United States landed in 18th place, dropping four spots from last year.

This report is the sixth to come out since 2012. The rankings of the world’s happiest countries came from an analysis of data from surveys in 156 countries taken from 2015 to 2017. The analysis of immigrant happiness was based on surveys of 117 countries covering the years 2005-2015.

[CNN]

This entry was posted in Humanitarian Aid, International Cooperation by Grant Montgomery.