India did not make any improvement in its happiness quotient, ranking 118th out of 156 countries in a global list of the happiest nations, down one slot from last year on the index and coming behind China, Pakistan and Bangladesh, writes Yoshita Singh.<\/b> (#India, #UnitedNations, #WorldHappinessIndex, #Siliconeer, @Siliconeer)<\/p>\n
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Denmark takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, displacing Switzerland, according to The World Happiness Report 2016, published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations. India ranked 118th, down from 117th in 2015.<\/p>\n
The report takes into account GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.<\/p>\n
Switzerland was ranked second on the list, followed by Iceland (3), Norway (4) and Finland (5).<\/p>\n
The report said that India was among the group of 10 countries witnessing the largest happiness declines along with Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen and Botswana.<\/p>\n
India comes below nations like Somalia (76), China (83), Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).<\/p>\n
India had ranked 111th in 2013.<\/p>\n
The U.S. is ranked 13th, coming behind Australia (9) and Israel (11).<\/p>\n
Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi were the least happy countries, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The report, released in advance of UN World Happiness Day on March 20, for the first time gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of wellbeing among countries and regions.<\/p>\n
Leading experts across fields economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and more describe how measurements of wellbeing can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.<\/p>\n
It reflects a “new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness as a criteria for government policy.”<\/p>\n
Previous reports have argued that happiness provides a better indicator of human welfare than do income, poverty, education, health and good government measured separately but now they also point out that the inequality of wellbeing provides a broader measure of inequality.<\/p>\n
“People are happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness. They also find that happiness inequality has increased significantly (comparing 2012-2015 to 2005-2011) in most countries, in almost all global regions, and for the population of the world as a whole,” the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India did not make any improvement in its happiness quotient, ranking 118th out of 156 countries in a global list of the happiest nations, down one slot from last year on the index and coming behind China, Pakistan and Bangladesh, writes Yoshita Singh. (#India, #UnitedNations, #WorldHappinessIndex, #Siliconeer, @Siliconeer) Denmark takes the top spot as the…<\/p>\n