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Why in news? 

• Indians are not as happy in 2019 as they were in 2018 and the country figures at 140th place, seven spots down from last year, on this year’s UN World Happiness Report.

Report

• 156 countries: The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.
  • This year’s World Happiness Report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes.
  • The report has been released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) at the United Nations.
  • It is published ahead of the International Day of Happiness marked on March 20th.
• 1-10 scale: A sample of individuals is taken every year in each country and they are asked to score their happiness on a 1-10 scale.
• 6 variables: The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being:
  • income (GDP per capita),
  • freedom,
  • trust,
  • healthy life expectancy,
  • social support and

Highlights

• According to the report, the overall world happiness has fallen over the past few years, which has mostly been fuelled by a sustained drop in India, which came in 140th place this year compared with 133rd place in 2018.
• Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for the second year in succession.
• The Nordic nation is followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and The Netherlands.
• Pakistan is ranked 67th, Bangladesh 125th and China is place at 93rd, according to the report.
• People in war-torn South Sudan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Central African Republic (155), Afghanistan (154), Tanzania (153) and Rwanda (152).
• The happiness study ranks the countries of the world on the basis of questions from the Gallup World Poll.
  • The results are then correlated with other factors, including GDP and social security.
• The United States ranks at 19th place for happiness, despite being one of the richest countries in the world.

India

• India ranks itself at 140 in happiness out of 156 countries or at the bottom 90th percentile. So India is at the bottom 10 per cent of all countries in unhappiness.
• Indians have emerged as one of the unhappiest peoples on earth in the UN’s 2019 annual Happiness Report. And their unhappiness has been worsening in recent years.
• Even aspects that as Indians we have had confidence in, such as strong social/family support, come out poorly in the happiness rankings. The Report has to be perused with a fine-toothed comb.
• In terms of its components, it is even worse for social support, which appears to be the driving force.
  • India is just at the 50 per cent rank for corruption, and at the bottom 58 per cent for generosity.
  • It ranks better for freedom, being within the top 27 per cent.
  • It is not surprising that it is at the bottom 25 per cent for per-capita GDP and longevity.
• In global terms, India’s unhappiness is considerably worse in the ranking than other countries of South Asia and China, and South Africa, and far worse than Latin America.

Mains question

• The UN World Happiness Report was published recently. India’s score was in the bottom 10%. Critically examine the factors behind this underperformance and what policy changes are needed to improve the performance.