Photo: Freepik/tirachardz (for illustration purposes only).
UN report says Singapore is happiest country in Asia
But though it’s the highest-ranked in Asia, Singapore did not break into the top 10, or even 20, happiest countries around the world. These are Finland, which has taken pole position for the sixth time, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Austria, Australia, Canada, Ireland, the US, Germany, Belgium, Czechia, the UK, and Lithuania, in order.
Singapore is ranked 25th, sandwiched between Romania and the United Arab Emirates.
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However, while the report is supposed to be based on a three-year average from 2019 to 2022, only data from 2020 and 2021 is used for Singapore, as there is no data for 2022.
Ranked 27th is Taiwan, the next happiest territory in Asia, while Japan is ranked 47th; Malaysia, 55th; Thailand, 60th; China, 64th; Vietnam, 65th; the Philippines, 76th; Hong Kong SAR, 82nd; Indonesia, 83rd; and India at 126th.
“Even during these difficult years, positive emotions have remained twice as prevalent as negative ones, and feelings of positive social support twice as strong as those of loneliness,” said Mr John Helliwell, who is one of the authors of the report.
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The study asked respondents to assess their lives at present as a whole, on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the best score.
Respondents in Finland, the happiest country, had an average rating of 7.804, while in Singapore it is at 6.587.
In the lowest-ranked country, Afghanistan, the average happiness rate is 1.859.
/TISG https://theindependent.sg/does-money-happiness-sg-redditors-debate/