Whether the ‘achchhe din’ have arrived in India is up for debate but the country is certainly not getting happier as each year passes, according to the World Happiness Report 2018 published by the United Nations.
India has slipped 11 positions in the world happiness index this year and is placed 133rd among 156 countries, behind all its neighbours except Afghanistan. Last year, the report placed India at 122nd position. In 2016 report, it was placed 118th.
India has witnessed one of the most apparent deterioration in happiness level in the past seven years. Only thirteen countries in the world have seen more drastic deterioration than India, according to the report.
In the assessment period 2015-2017, as per the report, Pakistan is placed at 75th position, China at 86th, Bhutan at 97th, Nepal at 101st, Bangladesh at 115th, Sri Lanka at 116th and Myanmar at 130th position. Afghanistan is placed at 145th position.
Finland, which was placed fifth last year, jumped four places in 2018 to top this year’s charts. It is followed by Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland respectively.
However, the report suggests that the four place jump by Finland is not a big achievement. “Although four places may seem a big jump, all the top five countries last year were within the same statistical confidence band, as they are again this year,” it says.
The average ladder score (the score on which countries have been ranked) differs only by 0.15 between the 1st and 5th position, and another 0.21 between 5th and 10th positions.
Interestingly, compared to the top 10 countries in the current ranking, there is a much bigger range of scores covered by the bottom 10 countries. Within this group, average scores differ by as much as 0.70 points, more than one-fifth of the average national score in the group.
The ladder score consists mainly six parameters which include GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
The report focuses on the happiness of immigrants in each country. Immigrants and foreign-born in India have exactly the same level of happiness as the people who are domestic born.
The report uses datasets from Gallop World Poll as the primary basis to arrive at the conclusions.
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