Finland Tops The World Happiness Index While India Is At... (X image@Finnair)Finland has secured its position as the happiest country in the world for seventh consecutive time, as per the World Happiness Report. Among the total of 143 countries, India emerged as 126th in the global happiness index, which was released this week. The other top ten countries as Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia. The happiness index was announced marking United Nation’s International Day of Happiness.
According to the happiness index, India comes behind countries like Libya, Iraq, Palestine, and Niger. It said that the young India are the happiest while those belonging to the “lower middle” class are the least happy. “Refuting some claims that the positive association between age and life satisfaction only exists in high-income nations”, the older people is associated with higher life satisfaction in India, said the report.
It said, “India’s older population is the second largest worldwide, with 140 million Indians aged 60 and over, second only to its 250 million Chinese counterparts. Additionally, the average growth rate for Indians aged 60 and above is three times higher than the overall population growth rate of the country”.
The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, WHR’s Editorial Board, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. As per the 2024 report, Washington has fallen out of the top 20 list, which is a first since the report started to publish in 2012. The fall is said to be driven by the large dip in the well-being of Americans under 30.
While Pakistan is ranked as the 108th on the happiness index, Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the list being the “unhappiest” nation.
For the first time, the index has given separate rankings for different age groups. For people under 30 and children, Lithuania tops the list as the happiest country and Denmark is the happiest country for those in their 60s and above.