The Sustainable Development Solutions Network has released the long-awaited 2023 World Happiness Report, shedding light on happiness rankings in 137 countries. This report uses a three-year average from 2020 to 2022 to supply a comprehensive evaluation of overall happiness levels around the globe.
Since 2012, it has been based annually on Gallup World Poll data from roughly 1,000 responses from each country. This study took into consideration six key aspects to evaluate the life evaluation of residents in each country. These include income or GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy (each physical and mental), social support, freedom to make life selections, generosity and the absence of corruption, all of which significantly influence one’s evaluation of life.
While the Nordic countries once more dominated the highest 10, Singapore is the one Southeast Asian country on the earth’s top 50. Thus, Singapore is taken into account the happiest country within the region! What concerning the other countries?
Singapore ranks twenty fifthvol place on the earth rankings for 2023. With a rating of 6,587, the country climbed two places in comparison with the previous 12 months’s position. Next on the Southeast Asia list is Malaysia, which has risen to fifty fifthvol position on the earth, which suggests a formidable jump of 15 places in comparison with 2022.
Thailand saw slight improvement from 61ststreet as much as 60vol place. At the identical time, Vietnam also saw a positive change, climbing from 77th placevol in 2022 to 65vol in 2023. In these rankings, Thailand is the third happiest country in Southeast Asia, closely followed by Vietnam.
Statistics from Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar also show significant increases. Indonesia saw a slight increase from 87vol to 84vol over the past two years, in other words, we managed to secure sixth placevol position within the region. Laos moved up six ascending positions to secure global 89th placevol place this 12 months, taking seventh placevol place in Southeast Asia. Cambodia saw a rise from 114vol to 115vol place. Meanwhile, Myanmar witnessed significant improvement, climbing to 117thvol after previously holding 126vol. Cambodia and Burma are due to this fact within the last two positions within the region.
While the eight countries above showed growth, only data from the Philippines showed a transparent pattern. Philippines, desired as fifthvol happiest country in Southeast Asia, saw a pointy decline in its global rating from sixtiethvol place in 2022 at 76vol place in 2023. However, no data is accessible for Brunei Darussalam and East Timor.
However, there have been many critics in each conventional and online media who query the report. These doubters highlight the alarmingly high suicide rate, stating the contradiction in countries described because the happiest on the earth. The latest global suicide report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that Finland, which has topped the list of the happiest countries on the earth for six years in a row, recorded a staggering 15.29 crude suicide rate in 2019 (per 100,000 inhabitants). This indicator implies that Finland is in the best category; for comparison, the opposite categories below include rates of 10-15, 5-10, and under 5 as the bottom suicide rate.
The same pattern was also observed within the happiest country in Southeast Asia. Singapore’s crude suicide rate (per 100,000 population) was the best within the region in 2019 at 11.21. Suicide prevention nonprofit Samaritans of Singapore, Ltd. says the trend reflects increasing mental distress attributable to various aspects akin to social pressures and economic uncertainty.
A paradoxical trend has emerged in Burma. Despite having the bottom levels of happiness within the region, surprisingly the information showed a low suicide rate of around 2.9. An an identical trend also appeared in Indonesia, where the speed was 2.42, in Brunei at 2.7 and within the Philippines at 2.15.
What is your opinion on this World Happiness Report? To what extent do you agree with this report?
