Israel has climbed five places to fourth in the 2023 World Happiness Report, which is sponsored by the UN, through a poll conducted by Gallup, measuring happiness in countries between 2020 and 2022. In the 2022 report Israel has risen from 12th to ninth, and it now finds itself in fourth place with a mark of 7.4 behind Finland (7.8), Denmark (7.58) and Iceland (7.53), and ahead of the Netherlands (7.4), Sweden (7.3), Switzerland (7.24), Luxembourg (7.23) and New Zealand (7.12) in the top ten.
The survey found that the level of happiness worldwide had not been affected by the Covid pandemic, even though it killed seven million people worldwide and caused an economic slowdown. The level of happiness includes six major variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
The study, which encompassed 100,000 people in 137 countries, found that happiness levels have risen slightly since pre-Covid, although scores have fallen slightly in Western countries, offset by a slightly bigger increase in the rest of the world. But 15 of the 20 happiest countries are European while the other five are Israel, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Among the 20 least happy countries are India, Jordan, and Bangladesh and 13 African countries. Afghanistan was the world's least happy country followed by Lebanon.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 20, 2023.
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