The World Happiness Report 2018 is out, and surprise surprise, Singapore didn’t do too well. In fact, our Little Red Dot just keeps dropping in rank — this year we’re at the 34th spot, below last year’s 26th place, which was already four notches lower than our position in 2016.
On the other side of the world, the Nordic nations were way happier than other countries across the globe, with Finland rising from fifth place last year to clinch the top spot as the happiest country in the world, followed by Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and Australia.
Put together by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the report ranked 156 territories according to categories like GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
Elsewhere in the world, the US plummeted four spots to 18th, while Britain took 19th place, followed by the United Arab Emirates. Even though income per capita has risen in the US over the past half-century, its happiness index has taken a hit due to declining social support networks, an increase in perception of corruption in government and business, and lower confidence in public institutions.
In Asia, Taiwan came in at 26th place — the only one to rank above Singapore on the list — while Malaysia fell slightly behind at 35th, followed by Thailand at 46th, the Philippines at 71st, Vietnam at 95th, Indonesia at 96th, and Myanmar at 130th.
At the bottom of the list was Central African Republic and Burundi, which came in last.
Also, for the first time since the index debuted in 2012, it ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries. Finland took first place once again, with Syria coming in last for the category.
