The United Nations has published the 2016 update to its World Happiness Report, showing which countries in the world have the glossiest outlook on life.<\/p>\n
The report is based on the assessment of 156 countries across a variety of indicators, ranging from GDP per capita, freedom to make choices, social support and life expectancy to metrics around generosity, perceptions of corruption and other positive and negative affects.<\/p>\n
For the 2016 update differs, the UN also included inequality in the assessment.<\/p>\n
“We have previously argued that happiness, as measured by life evaluations, provides a broader indicator of human welfare than do measures of income, poverty, health, education, and good government viewed separately. We now make a parallel suggestion for measuring and addressing inequality,” the group said.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the report looked at the equality of happiness – the variation of happiness reported among a country’s population – and, rather logically, found that countries with greater equality, tended to be happier.<\/p>\n
Overall, South Africa was ranked as the 116th happiest country in the world. The position was down from 2015, where South Africa ranked 113th.<\/p>\n
Notably, South Africa saw the 14th-biggest negative movement in happiness over the past decade.<\/p>\n
Globally, Sub-Saharan Africa is the unhappiest region in the world, with eight of the ten lowest scoring countries hailing from the region.<\/p>\n
War-torn Syria and Afghanistan are the other two non SSA regions featured at the bottom.<\/p>\n
Conversely, the happiest regions in the world are from the Scandinavian region, led by Denmark, which has retained its top spot once again in 2016.<\/p>\n
These are the happiest – and unhappiest – countries in the world, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
| #<\/th>\n | Country<\/th>\n | Happiness score<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1<\/td>\n | Denmark<\/td>\n | 7.526<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2<\/td>\n | Switzerland<\/td>\n | 7.509<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3<\/td>\n | Iceland<\/td>\n | 7.501<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4<\/td>\n | Norway<\/td>\n | 7.498<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5<\/td>\n | Finland<\/td>\n | 7.413<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6<\/td>\n | Canada<\/td>\n | 7.404<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7<\/td>\n | Netherlands<\/td>\n | 7.339<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8<\/td>\n | New Zealand<\/td>\n | 7.334<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9<\/td>\n | Australia<\/td>\n | 7.313<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10<\/td>\n | Sweden<\/td>\n | 7.291<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
116<\/strong><\/td>\n| South Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n | 4.459<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 148<\/td>\n | Madagascar<\/td>\n | 3.695<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 149<\/td>\n | Tanzania<\/td>\n | 3.666<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 150<\/td>\n | Liberia<\/td>\n | 3.622<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 151<\/td>\n | Guinea<\/td>\n | 3.607<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 152<\/td>\n | Rwanda<\/td>\n | 3.515<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 153<\/td>\n | Benin<\/td>\n | 3.484<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 154<\/td>\n | Afghanistan<\/td>\n | 3.360<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 155<\/td>\n | Togo<\/td>\n | 3.303<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 156<\/td>\n | Syria<\/td>\n | 3.069<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | 157<\/td>\n | Burundi<\/td>\n | 2.905<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n | More on South Africa<\/h3>\nMythbusting: Are South Africans hard workers?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The questions Moody\u2019s will ask about South Africa this week<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n |