World Happiness Report 2020: Pakistan is the Happiest Nation in South Asia

[Riaz Haq]

The World Happiness Report continues to rank Pakistan as the happiest nation in South Asia for several years now. The country ranks 66th among 153 nations surveyed for the World Happiness Report 2020. India ranks 144, Bangladesh 107, Nepal 92, Sri Lanka 130, Maldives 87 and Afghanistan 153. China ranks 94th.  Finland tops the list followed by Denmark second and Switzerland 3rd in the world.  The report warns that the COVID-19 global pandemic poses "great risks for some of the main supports for well-being, most especially health and income".

Pakistan has moved up in happiness ranking to 66th in 2020, up from  67th last year and 75th in 2018.  Meanwhile, India's ranking has fallen to 144 this year, down from 140 last year and 133 in 2018. It appears that Prime Minister Modi's divisive policies are contributing to declining happiness in India.

Pakistan Ranks 66. Source: WHR2020

WHR Ranking Criteria. Source: WHR2020

The rankings are based on data collected in the years 2018 and 2019. Researchers asked people to evaluate their own levels of happiness, and considered six other factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption, according to the report released Friday.

Each of the bars is divided into seven segments, showing WHR research efforts. The first six sub-bars show how much each of the six key variables is calculated to contribute to that country’s score, relative to that in a hypothetical country called “Dystopia”, so named because it has values equal to the world’s lowest national averages for 2017-2019 for each of the six key variables.

Unhappy India. Source: Times of India

People in major Pakistani cities are not particularly happy. For example, Karachi ranks 117th and Lahore 122nd among 186 cities in the world. However, Pakistani cities still report greater happiness than Indian capital of New Delhi at 180 and Sri Lankan Colombo 170. Kathmandu ranks higher at 105.

The World Happiness Report 2020 has been produced by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve.  Commenting on the report, lead author John Helliwell said, "The happiest countries are those 'where people feel a sense of belonging', where they trust and enjoy each other and their shared institutions. There is also more resilience, because shared trust reduces the burden of hardships, and thereby lessens the inequality of well-being."

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[Riaz Haq]

#India: Doctor Assaulted On Her Way To Hospital. She’s Not The Only Medic Being Attacked. #healthcare professionals in India being evicted from homes because of #coronavirus. #COVID #Modi #BJP https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nishitajha/coronavirus-india-d... via @NishSwish

When H. received an urgent message from the hospital on Monday night asking her to come in to work, she knew it would be bad. The world was in the grips of a pandemic, and her home state in south India had discovered 22 positive cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. For weeks, the hospital where she worked had been all hands on deck — even doctors not treating coronavirus patients were required to take throat and nose swabs, check symptoms, and decide who needed medical assistance. What she never imagined was that she — a doctor — would be stopped by police on her way to work, abused, assaulted, hauled into a police station, and then work a 12-hour-shift with bruises all over her body.

Just days ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked citizens to come out on their balconies and literally applaud the courage and sacrifice of health care professionals, but across the country doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers are under attack. H. is one among many examples of medics being assaulted or driven out of their homes. Medical professionals are being stigmatized as suspected carriers of the novel coronavirus, or accused of flouting a national lockdown. BuzzFeed News has seen a copy of H.’s complaint to the police about the events of Monday night but has agreed not to publish her full name because she fears retaliation from the officers involved.

H., who is in her thirties, lives and works in the state of Telangana, where on March 23 the state’s chief minister requested all citizens stay indoors for 24 hours.

Health care professionals were exempt, but the state also placed into effect a colonial-era law from 1897, known as the Epidemic Disease Act. Introduced by the British in India to combat the bubonic plague, the law allows state governments to take extraordinary measures to curb the spread of disease, while giving full protection to authorities from any legal action. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the law has been brought into effect in multiple Indian states, even as the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics has warned that it can be misused to trample on the rights of citizens.

At 8:45 p.m. on Monday, H. finally found a ride to work, there being no public transport that day. She and a fellow doctor were making their way to the hospital on a scooter, both women exhilarated and unsettled by the empty streets. That’s when they were stopped by the police.

“The officer on duty asked me why I was out during curfew, so I showed him my ID and explained that I was a doctor on my way to work,” H. said. “He snatched my ID, looked at it and said, ‘But how do I know whether you’re a doctor or just going to meet some man at this time of the night?’”

H. said she asked the officer to return her ID. Simultaneously, she took out her phone and began trying to call the hospital for help. At this point, she said, the officer snatched her phone, slapped her across the face, and called her a “bloody bitch.”

“I was so shocked when he hit me that I hit him back, almost as a defensive reflex,” she said. “At that point, he lost it. He grabbed my hair and dragged me into the Jeep, his fellow officers began hitting me across the thighs and legs with their batons. They groped me all over, including my private parts.”

[Riaz Haq]

Hate going up, #happiness down in #Modi's #India; India way behind #Pakistan, #Nepal in happiness index. Ranked 144, India is way behind Pakistan, Nepal, #Bangladesh. #WorldHappinessReport https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/hate-going-up-happiness-down-india-way-behind-pakistan-nepal-in-happiness-index

India has dropped down four spots in the happiness rankings as compared to its 2019 ranking. In 2019, India was placed on 140 position while in in 2018, India was placed on 133 position. The position went up to 122 in 2017 but again it saw a steep fall.

Canada is ranked 11, Australia at 12 and the United Kingom at 13. The US is at the 18th spot.

“The happiest countries are those where people feel a sense of belonging, where they trust and enjoy each other and their shared institutions,” John Helliwell, one of the authors of the report, said in a statement.

“There is also more resilience, because shared trust reduces the burden of hardships, and thereby lessens the inequality of well-being,” he added.

[Riaz Haq]

65% of Pakistanis are happy despite hardships of coronavirus pandemic: Survey
25 % of Pakistanis said they are unhappy.
54% of the world’s population described themselves as happy with only 14% saying they are unhappy.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40046191

The End of Year Survey 2020 conducted by Gallup Pakistan has revealed that despite the coronavirus pandemic and the economical hardships, 65% of Pakistanis are happy with their lives.

The Gallup International End of Year Survey (EoY) was carried out in 41 countries around the world. A total of 38,709 persons were interviewed globally, out of which around 1000 men and women were interviewed in Pakistan.

In the survey, conducted this year from October 9 to November 2, 65% of Pakistanis said they are happy. About 25 % of Pakistanis said they are unhappy, whereas, 8% said they are somewhere between happy and unhappy.

Meanwhile, 54% of the world’s population describe themselves as happy with only 14% saying they are unhappy. While 31% say they are in between happy and unhappy. Moreover, 43% believed that 2021 will be better than 2020.

[Riaz Haq]

#Modi's, #BJP's parent org RSS's chief advocates ‘Akhand Bharat’ that includes #Pakistan & #Afghanistan:"There is a need to make glorious Akhand Bharat for the welfare of the universe. That’s why there is a need to awaken patriotism for the country”#Hindu https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/rss-chief-advocates-akhand...

More than the present India, the separated parts of erstwhile India, which shed their relevance with the country, have more necessity for the reunification to come out of their “miseries”, he further said.

Stressing that the concept of ‘Akhand Bharat’ is possible, Bhagwat said some people had expressed serious doubts before the partition of the country in 1947 whether Pakistan would be formed, but it happened.

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, when asked before partition of the country in 1947, had said the possibility of formation of Pakistan was “dream of fools” though it happened.

According to Bhagwat, Lord Wavell (during British rule) also said in British Parliament that God has made India one and so who would divide it.


“But ultimately it (partition of India) happened.

What seemed to be impossible had happened, so it cannot be ruled out that ‘Akhand Bharat’ which may seem to be impossible, will not happen,” he said.

Alleging that there is unhappiness in the separated regions of ‘Akhand Bharat’ which now do not call themselves as ‘Bharat’, the RSS chief said the remedy to come out their miseries is reunification with India.


“They (separated countries) did all they could, but did not find any remedy. And remedy is reunification (with Bharat) only and all their problems will get resolved,” he said.

He, however, said the reunification should be done through “humanitys dharm” which according to him is called “Hindu dharm”.


“Gandhar became Afghanistan. Is there peace and tranquility in Afghanistan since then? Pakistan was formed.

From that date till now, is there peace and tranquility?” he asked.


He said India has the endurance to overcome several challenges and the world looks towards it to overcome difficulties.

With “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (world is one family) belief, India can again offer happiness and peace to the world, he added. PTI

[Riaz Haq]

Finland world’s happiest country; India 139th, between Sierra Leone & Burundi
World Happiness Report, now in its ninth year, places Denmark in second place, followed by Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands

https://thefederal.com/news/finland-worlds-happiest-country-india-a...

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed more than two million lives so far, has had little effect on the ranking of the world’s happiest countries, with Finland taking the No 1 spot for a fourth straight year, an annual UN-sponsored report said on Friday.

Once again European nations dominated the top spots; the World Happiness Report, now in its ninth year, placed Denmark in second place, followed by Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands. New Zealand, which fell one place to ninth, was again the only non-European nation in the Top 10.

The report used Gallup data asking people in 149 countries to rate their happiness. India was at 139th position. Only Burundi, Yemen, Tanzania, Haiti, Malawi, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan were classed as unhappier than India.


Among India’s neighbours, China was at 84th position, Nepal at 87th position, Bangladesh at 101st, Pakistan at 105th, Myanmar at 126th and Sri Lanka at 129th.

The report took into account measures such as GDP, social support, personal freedom and levels of corruption to give each nation a happiness score, which is an average of the past three years. But unlike in the past, this year the index included surveys on how countries have dealt with the pandemic.

This year’s report was faced with a unique challenge in trying to understand what effect the pandemic has had on subjective well-being and vice versa, the report said. Of all the factors usually supporting happiness, the most important for explaining COVID-19 death rates were people’s trust in each other, and confidence in their governments, it said.

The report said it was “no surprise” Finland once again took the top spot. It has always ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic, it said.

The report quoted one of its authors, Jeffrey Sachs, as saying: “We need urgently to learn from COVID-19. 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 wellbeing 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.”

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021/

[Riaz Haq]

Bangladesh up 6 notches on happiness index

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/03/19/bangladesh-up-6-...

Bangladesh has moved up six notches on the Happiness Index, ahead of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.

According to World Happiness Report 2021 Bangladesh was ranked 102nd among 150 countries of the world, while India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar placed 140th, 106th, 130th, and 127th, respectively.

Nepal and Maldives ranked higher than Bangladesh, with Nepal ranked 88th and Maldives 90th.

Bangladesh ranked the 108th happiest last year.

Finland, for the fourth straight time, was declared as the happiest country while Afghanistan came out at the bottom of the annual list prepared from data compiled by the Gallup World Poll.


The other two Scandinavian nations, Iceland and Denmark, ranked 2nd and 3rd while Switzerland and the Netherlands came in fourth and fifth positions.

The US moved up from 18th to 14th place and the UK dropped from 13th to 18th. Australia held its 12th place position.

The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being, including income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, however, The World Happiness Report 2021 was assembled slightly differently.

This year, the researchers focused on the relationship between wellbeing and Covid-19 to ensure the countries are judged in light of the new normal.

[Riaz Haq]

#Pakistan ranks 105, #India 139 among 149 countries in World #Happiness Report 2022. #WHR2022 #SouthAsia #COVID19 https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-ranks-139-in-world-happin...


https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/


Pakistan is on 105th, Bangladesh on 101st and China on 84th, according to the report. People in war-torn Afghanistan are the most unhappy with their lives, followed by Zimbabwe (148), Rwanda (147), Botswana (146) and Lesotho (145).


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.

Overall, the index showed little change in happiness levels compared to last years' report, which was based on information from before the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The World Happiness Report 2021 has been released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Finland was once again crowned as the world's happiest country.

India has been ranked 139 out of 149 countries in the list of UN World Happiness Report 2021. In 2019, India was ranked 140th.

What is World Happiness Report?

The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 149 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.

The World Happiness Report 2021 focuses on the effects of Covid-19 and how people all over the world have fared.

The annual report ranks nations based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy and the opinions of residents. Surveys ask respondents to indicate on a 1-10 scale how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

“Our aim was two-fold, first to focus on the effects of COVID-19 on the structure and quality of people’s lives, and second to describe and evaluate how governments all over the world have dealt with the pandemic. In particular, we try to explain why some countries have done so much better than others," it said in a statement.

“There have been both in-person and telephone samples for India, with the in-person responses being lower than telephone responses, while significantly higher than in-person responses in 2019. Hence the reversal in 2020 of the longer-term slide in Indian life evaluations was not attributable to mode effects," it added.

Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for the fourth consecutive year. The Nordic nation is followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Norway.

[Riaz Haq]

#WorldHappinessReport: #India among unhappiest nations, languishes at 136th spot. In #SouthAsia, only Taliban-ruled Afghanistan fared worse than India. #Afghanistan was named the most unhappy country in the world, ranking last on the index of 146 countries

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/world-happiness-report-indi...


India continued to fare poorly in the world happiness index, with its position marginally improving to 136 as against last year’s 139.

Among the South Asian nations, only Taliban-ruled Afghanistan fared worse than India. Afghanistan was named the most unhappy country in the world, ranking last on the index of 146 countries. Nepal (84), Bangladesh (94), Pakistan (121) and Sri Lanka (127) managed to get better ranks in the list.

Finland topped the list for the fifth time in a row, according to the 10th edition of the World Happiness Report.


Finland was followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Among other western countries, while the United States managed to bag the 16th position, Britain was ranked 17th and France 20th.

The Happiness report also stated that India was one among the countries that witnessed, over the past 10 years, a fall in life evaluations by more than a full point on the 0 to 10 scale.

[Riaz Haq]

India scored 80 points on the table, below its neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka with a marginal difference but was placed above the United Kingdom and Bangladesh.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/these-are-5-most-and-leas...

Gallup's Law and Order Index 2022 - a report by global analytics firm Gallup -- has positioned Taliban-captured Afghanistan as the least secure country for the third year. Region-wise, the report has declared East Asia as the most secure while Southeast Asia came second to it. Gallup’s survey which takes into consideration four questions to gauge “people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement” said it has interviewed about 127,000 people in over 120 countries to compile the list.


The five most secure countries on Gallup’s index

Singapore 96
Tajikistan 95
Norway 93
Switzerland 92
Indonesia 92
The five least secure countries on Gallup's index

Sierra Leone 59
DR Congo 58
Venezuela 55
Gabon 54
Afghanistan 51

India scored 80 points on the table, below its neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka with a marginal difference in points but was placed above the United Kingdom and Bangladesh. As per the reports, Southeast Asia was home to the largest gains in confidence - due to contributions from Singapore and Indonesia’s improved police services.

Afghanistan which maintained the lowest score in the last two surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 too (survey was not conducted in 2020 due to pandemic) - improved its score relatively due to a drop in violence following the end of the Taliban’s insurgency as it had completed the takeover from US troops. The report also said that North America and Western Europe have lost ground mainly due to people’s falling confidence in the police, especially after the high-profile police shootings including the killing of George Floyd which sparked a racial injustice movement.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/403937/global-progress-safety-confiden...

[Riaz Haq]

The World Happiness Report 2023 has been published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/20-Mar-2023/where-does-pakistan-sta...

According to the report, Pakistan is at number 103 on the happiness index, climbing 18 spots as compared to the previous list in which the South Asian nation was ranked at 121.

Meanwhile, neighbouring India ranked lowest in Asia as Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka ranked above the second most populated nation.

Some of the parameters used for assessment include the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in terms of Purchasing Power Parity, generosity, people’s perception of corruption and freedom, social support, health and life expectancy at birth.

Report finds that stressful jobs, sheer competition, family issues, health complications, inflation and several other factors cost us our happiness.

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Top Happiest Nations in the world
Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Israel
Netherlands
Sweden
Norway
Switzerland
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Austria
Australia
Canada
Ireland
United States
Germany
Belgium
Czech Republic
United Kingdom
Lithuania