Finland was named this Friday “the happiest country in the world” for the fifth year in a row, in the ranking of the United Nations World Happiness Report.
With a score of 7.82 out of 10, the Nordic country of 5.5 million inhabitants is ahead of Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands. This top of the ranking is unchanged and dominated by European countries and Northern Europe in particular.
“The three biggest increases were in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. The biggest setbacks in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan,” according to the World Happiness Report.
Lebanon, shaken by unrest and a serious economic crisis, thus falls to the penultimate place, with 2.95 points, behind Zimbabwe and just ahead of Afghanistan, still last this year, with a score of 2, 40.
France obtains its best ranking
Germany and Canada fell one place to 14th and 15th place respectively, just ahead of the United States (16th, +3), according to the official ranking of around 150 countries, which weights data from the last three years.
France is 20th (+1), “its best ranking since the study exists”, while the United Kingdom is 17th (unchanged).
Among the other major powers, Brazil is in 38th position (-3), Japan 54th (+2), while Russia falls to 80th place (-4) in this edition completed before the invasion of Ukraine . China jumped 12 ranks to 72nd position, India remains far at the bottom of the ranking (136th) but gained three places.
The study, published annually since 2012, primarily uses Gallup polls asking residents for their own level of happiness, cross-referenced with GDP and ratings regarding the level of solidarity, individual freedom and corruption, to come up with an overall score. .