Smile! Malaysia is 4th happiest country in Asia
KUALA LUMPUR: Despite our penchant for grumbling, it appears that Malaysians are for the most part a happy bunch after all.
Malaysia has been ranked as the fourth happiest country in Asia.
This was according to the 2017 World Happiness Report, which also ranked Malaysia as the 42nd happiest country among 155 nations, five places up from last year’s report.
http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/
The report, which began in 2012, was produced by the Sustainable Solutions Network and relies on data gathered by the Gallup World Poll.
Other neigbouring countries that managed to climb up the rank were Thailand (32 from 33), Taiwan (33 from 42), Vietnam (94 from 96) and the Philippines (72 from 82).
Singapore is still the happiest country in Asia, however their rank dropped from 22nd place to 26th.
Right on top of this year’s World Happiness Report was Norway who managed to jump into first position, followed closely by Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland.
Rounding out the top 10 were Finland at 5th place, the Netherlands (6), Canada (7), New Zealand (8), and Australia and Sweden tied for 9th place.
The United States on the other hand fell to number 14, down a spot from last year. The US had never cracked the top 10 since the rankings were first published in 2012, when it came in at 11th place.
Another major country, China, has made major economic strides in recent years, but according to the report, its people are not happier than they were 25 years ago.
The report also stated that the world’s “unhappiest” countries are all in the Middle East and Africa.
War-stricken Yemen and Syria featured in the bottom 10, with Tanzania, Burundi and Central African Republic making up the final three.
Countries are ranked using three-year averages of data collected with the latest report covering 2014-2016.
Some 3,000 respondents from each country were asked to rate their life evaluations.
