Nigeria has been ranked 85 out of 156 countries and second in sub-Saharan Africa for 2019 in the annual Global Happiness Policy Report produced by the Global Happiness Council. Nigeria’s ranking is an improvement from its 91-position ranking in 2018.
The report was presented by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and others. Presenting the annual report, Helliwell said, Finland came first as the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands. While the world’s least happy country is South Sudan followed by Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.
“It showed that the annual data for Finland have continued their modest, but steady upward trend since 2014. So, that dropping 2015 and adding 2018 boosts the average score, thereby putting Finland significantly ahead of other countries in the top 10.”
The report added that “This year, the focus was on happiness and community: how happiness has been changing over the past dozen years, and how information technology, governance and social norms influence communities.”
The report also showed that the quality of people’s lives can be coherently, reliably, and validly assessed by a variety of subjective wellbeing measures, collectively referred to then, and in subsequent reports as “happiness.”
Speaking on New Zealand attack, Helliwell said, “What stands out about the happiest and most well-connected societies is their resilience and ability to deal with bad things.
“After the 2011 earthquake and now the terrorist attack in Christchurch, with high social capital, where people are connected, people rally and help each other and (in after the earthquake) rebuild immediately.’’
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