The World Happiness Report is released by the Wellbeing Research Centre, Oxford in collaboration with Gallup. As per its latest edition, India ranks 118, 8 places above the last year among 147 countries, while Afghanistan is the least happy country.
This is the 13th edition of the report and it coincides with the International Day of Happiness which occurs on 20th March. While it’s not shocking that Nordic countries once again top the index. India’s rank is below its neighbors Nepal, Pakistan(109), Ukraine(111) and even Palestinian territory(108).
The rankings placed territories torn with war and debt over a growing economy has gained outrages across Indian media. Many call out its methodology once again. Though it’s certainly wrong to question the rankings there is some truth in the problematic methodology used by the Wellbeing Research Centre.
It mainly uses a subjective assessment method, Gallup’s “Cantril ladder” where respondents rate their lives on a scale of 0-10 which is based on six categories. This is however not based on facts or reality as places where the rules are strict often report a high level of happiness due to controls. In an evolving country like India where multiple ideologies and dynamics co-exist the perceptions are highly variable. Hence, the perception might not be the exact reflection of the state of a country.
The idea of a happiness report was started due to Bhutan’s resolution in the United Nations in 2011 after which the first such report was published in 2012. The country did not however feature in this year’s report. Another shocking result was the low rank of the US (24th), and the report said “The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States.”
