Nigeria has been ranked the world’s 95th happiest country from 137 nations, according to The World Happiness Report.
The report scored Nigeria 4.98 of a possible 10 to move the country 23 places upwards after ranking 118th in 2022.
The 2023 report published on Monday indicates a high happiness-resilience level among self-reported “life evaluations” and matches pre-Covid year levels.
The report, which is a publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, measures happiness across countries based on social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
Results are drawn based on their average life evaluations over the three preceding years, in this case 2020 to 2022.
– Nordic leads
The Nordic countries of Finland, Denmark and Iceland are on top of the table in that order with Finland maintaining its grip as the happiest country on the planet for the sixth year.
“Nordic countries merit special attention in light of their generally high levels of both personal and institutional trust,” part of the report said.
United States climbed a step upwards from 16th to 15th position compared to last year’s report, and Canada scaled two points to the 13th spot. Israel increased its position by five points, dethroning Switzerland as the fourth happiest country in the world.
The report shows Ukraine slipped down to the 92nd happiest country (based on that three-year average) from 69th place in 2021 following the Russian invasion last year, while Russia fell from 60th in 2021 to 70th position in 2023.
“The devastating impact of the war is evident to all, and so we also find that well-being in Ukraine has taken a real hit. But what is surprising, however, is that well-being in Ukraine fell by less than it did in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea,” noted Jan-Emmanuel De Neve who co-authors the report.
No African country is listed among the top 20 countries.
At the bottom of the table is war-torn Afghanistan (137th place) and Lebanon (136th place) who remain the two unhappiest countries while African countries such as Zambia (128th) Zimbabwe (134th place), Botswana (132nd place), and Sierra Leone (135th place) among others stagger at the bottom of the table.
Below is the list of the top 20 happiest countries:
Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Israel
The Netherlands
Sweden
Norway
Switzerland
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Austria
Australia
Canada
Ireland
The United States
Germany
Belgium
Czech Republic
The United Kingdom
Lithuania
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