It's been over three years since the Covid-19 outbreak began, and things are looking bleak. Not only was this a health issue, but it also had a significant economic impact.
The World Happiness Report 2022 revealed the average happiness scores of 146 countries, according to the report. The graph depicts the average scores from 2019 to 2021.
The data was categorized into six categories: per capita GDP, social assistance, healthy life expectancy at birth, freedom to make life decisions, generosity, and views of corruption.
The World Happiness Report measures happiness using three key indicators: life assessments, good feelings, and negative emotions.
The Cantril ladder approach is used to estimate participants' wellbeing for life evaluations, which is the report's "primary source of data."
"Evaluate their current life as a whole using the mental image of a ladder, with the best conceivable life for them as a 10 and the worst possible existence as a 0," respondents are asked. After that, they give a number that best describes their current life status.
Around 1,000 replies are collected from each country, and a three-year average is utilized to "give more exact estimations" in this scenario.
Following that, responders will be asked three questions and will be asked to answer yes or no.
The three questions are if they have laughed, enjoyed themselves, or learned or done something fascinating in the previous day.
Three questions, on the other hand, are used to determine the importance of negative emotions.
Individuals answer yes or no to the following questions: Have they felt worried, angry, or sad in the previous day?
The figures depict survey results from thousands of people in each country who were asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using the Cantril life ladder question. Go here for further information on this methodology as well as technical notes.
The report also conducts a regression analysis to see how happiness levels may be explained, taking into account both concrete and intangible aspects such as:
- Social support
- Life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- GDP per capita
- Perceptions of corruption
- Positive and negative affects
The report, like last year's, takes great care to document how COVID-19 has altered areas of our daily life, as well as how it has affected worldwide happiness levels.
Singapore was ranked 27th in South-East Asia, with a score of 6.5, ahead of the Philippines (60, 5.9), Thailand (61, 5.9), Malaysia (70, 5.7), Vietnam (77, 5.5), Indonesia (87, 5.2), Laos (95), Cambodia (114), and Myanmar (126, 4.4).
Finland remained the happiest country in the world this year, ahead of Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel, and New Zealand.
The report found that under Covid-19, emotional measurements play an even bigger part in life analysis.
"This is partly because Covid-19 has affected various emotions differently and partly because emotions based on yesterday's experiences tend to be more volatile than life evaluations, which are more stable in response to temporary disturbances," the report said.
Worry and sadness have risen over the last ten years, particularly in 2020, the first year of Covid-19, before improving slightly in 2021, according to the report.
It went on to say that some data revealed that large-scale disasters can lead to increases in trust, kindness, and well-being when individuals reach out to aid others.
“Looking to the future, it is important to know whether trust and benevolence have been fostered or destroyed by two years of the pandemic," the report concluded.
Source: VisualCapitalist.com, TheStar.com, GoodyFeed.com
