The World Happiness Report came out last week. (You can read it here.) Just the way you look for yourself in your high school yearbook, I looked for Haiti, the country where I live, to find its ranking this year.
Well, it wasn't too impressive. Out of 149 countries for which data was collected, Haiti was 143rd in the world happiness rankings.
The numbers are partly based on numbers like the country's GDP and life expectancy. They take into account the perception of corruption in the country, freedom to make life choices, social support, generosity. The report acknowledges that COVID-19 had negative effects on happiness all over the place. It says you were more likely to be happy last year if you had a pet and if you had reliable internet access.
For 2020, the world's happiest country was Finland. The least happy country was Afghanistan. The US was 19th.
Haiti has had lots of reasons for unhappiness in the last 12 months. In addition to the pandemic, we've had a volatile and uncertain political situation for a long time now. We've been kept at home by violent crime and protests. It makes me sad when I look back over the last few years of the report and see that Haiti ranked 119th in the world in 2015. And now, 143rd.
Here's to happier days.
And here's what everybody else wrote about today.
2 comments:
I had no idea there was a happiness report! I'm going to eagerly dig into this and see where my location is, too!
The Happiness report is always an interesting report. I am always amazed that Finland, a country with a long winter, still has lots of happy people. As I get older, I enjoy winter less! More important than a country’s rating is your personal score on happiness. Hope you are finding joy in your life.
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