The World Happiness Report continues to rank Pakistan as the happiest nation in South Asia for several years now. The country ranks 66th among 153 nations surveyed for the World Happiness Report 2020. India ranks 144, Bangladesh 107, Nepal 92, Sri Lanka 130, Maldives 87 and Afghanistan 153. China ranks 94th.  Finland tops the list followed by Denmark second and Switzerland 3rd in the world.  The report warns that the COVID-19 global pandemic poses "great risks for some of the main supports for well-being, most especially health and income".

Pakistan has moved up in happiness ranking to 66th in 2020, up from  67th last year and 75th in 2018.  Meanwhile, India's ranking has fallen to 144 this year, down from 140 last year and 133 in 2018. It appears that Prime Minister Modi's divisive policies are contributing to declining happiness in India.

The rankings are based on data collected in the years 2018 and 2019. Researchers asked people to evaluate their own levels of happiness, and considered six other factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption, according to the report released Friday.

Each of the bars is divided into seven segments, showing WHR research efforts. The first six sub-bars show how much each of the six key variables is calculated to contribute to that country’s score, relative to that in a hypothetical country called “Dystopia”, so named because it has values equal to the world’s lowest national averages for 2017-2019 for each of the six key variables.

Unhappy India. Source: Times of India

People in major Pakistani cities are not particularly happy. For example, Karachi ranks 117th and Lahore 122nd among 186 cities in the world. However, Pakistani cities still report greater happiness than Indian capital of New Delhi at 180 and Sri Lankan Colombo 170. Kathmandu ranks higher at 105.

The World Happiness Report 2020 has been produced by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve.  Commenting on the report, lead author John Helliwell said, "The happiest countries are those 'where people feel a sense of belonging', where they trust and enjoy each other and their shared institutions. There is also more resilience, because shared trust reduces the burden of hardships, and thereby lessens the inequality of well-being."

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