World Happiness Report: PH slips nine notches down to 61st place

The continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may have dimmed happiness throughout the globe due to the millions of deaths, incompetent government response, and the continuous threat to people’s livelihoods.

Though uncertainty is still in our midst, even with the ongoing vaccine rollouts worldwide, there is hope that in the end, happiness will still prevail.

In the 2021 World Happiness Report of the United Nations, the Philippines, with an average score of 5.88, was at 61^st place out of the 149 countries that were ranked.

The country slipped nine notches from last year’s 52^nd spot (with a score of 6.006).

The annual report compiles data from the previous three years of surveys.

Ahead of the Philippines in the list are neighbor countries like Taiwan, 24^th (6.58); Singapore, 32^nd (6.377); Thailand, 54^th (5.985); and Japan, 56^th (5.940) with South Korea trailing behind at 62^nd (5.845).

Finland, for four years in a row, remained at No.1 with an average score of 7.842. According to the report, Finland has always ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped protect lives and livelihoods in the country during the pandemic.

Just like in most years since the report started in 2012, many European countries outranked the rest of the world, with the exception this year of New Zealand, which breached the Top 10. Here are the happiest countries in the world according to WHR: 

1. Finland (7.842)
2. Denmark (7.620)
3. Switzerland (7.571)
4. Iceland (7.554)
5. Netherlands (7.464)
6. Norway (7.392)
7. Sweden (7.363)
8. Luxembourg (7.324)
9. New Zealand (7.277)
10. Austria (7.268)

Meanwhile, the countries at the bottom of the list include Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Haiti, Tanzania, Yemen and Burundi.

Because of pandemic-related issues, including collecting data, nearly one-third of the world’s countries had missing data for 2020. For those nations without data, their scores for the 2021 report were taken based on the 2018 to 2019 surveys.

The report measures subjective well-being with three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. It also has six key variables to come up with the happiness scores, which are income, freedom, trust in government, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity.

“We need to urgently learn from COVID-19,” said co-author, economist and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs.

“The pandemic reminds us of our global environmental threats, the urgent need to cooperate, and the difficulties of achieving cooperation in each country and globally. The World Happiness Report 2021 reminds us that we must aim for well-being rather than mere wealth, which will be fleeting indeed if we don’t do a much better job of addressing the challenges of sustainable development.”