Canada is one of the happiest countries in the world. In fact, it comes in at 7th out of 155 countries, according to this year’s World Happiness Report.
The annual report measures countries by their happiness levels annually, and the latest report was released at the United Nations, at an event celebrating International Day of Happiness.
Topping the list is Norway, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and Finland, who closes in on the 5th spot.
Meanwhile, the US ranked 14th dropping down one spot from last year.
“The World Happiness Report continues to draw global attention around the need to create sound policy for what matters most to people – their well-being,” said Jeffrey Sachs Director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network in a statement. “As demonstrated by many countries, this report gives evidence that happiness is a result of creating strong social foundations.”
This year’s report gave special attention to the social foundations of happiness, including happiness in the workplace.
Other factors considered include real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity.
The World Happiness Report evaluates their data on a scale running from 0 to 10. The rankings, which are based on surveys in 155 countries covering the three years 2014-2016, reveal an average score of 5.3 (out of 10). The top 10 countries, including Canada, had scored above 7.
World Happiness Report 2017.
Although we seem happy this year, Canada came in at 6th last year. So looks like our happiness level went down a ranking.
But we’re happy nonetheless, which is what counts.