Mapped: Immigration by Country, as a Percentage of the Population – Visual Capitalist

Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2022

What really makes people happy? While countless academic researchers have tried to get to the bottom of this, the truth is, its a complicated question to answer.

Happiness levels depend on a number of factors, including ones financial security, perceptions of social support, feelings of personal freedom, and much more.

This map pulls data from the World Happiness Report to uncover the average happiness scores of 146 countries. It shows average scores from 2019 to 2021, and highlights which countries are the happiestor unhappiestand why.

Before diving in, lets briefly touch on how happiness levels are measured in this report.

The numbers shown represent the survey data from thousands of respondents for each country, who are asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using the Cantril life ladder question. For more information on the methodology of this and technical notes, go here.

The report also does a regression analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking at tangible and intangible factors that could factor in:

Similar to last year, the report takes special considerations to track how COVID-19 has impacted aspects of our daily lives, and how its affected global happiness levels.

Editors note: there are several countries covered in last years report that were not included in this years dataset, including Haiti, Maldives, and Burundi.

Worldwide happiness comes in at an average score of 5.6, which is a slight improvement since last years report. Below, we dive into each regions happiness levels.

Current Mood: Happy (6.3)

Like last year, Canada ranks first as the happiest country in North America. However, its lost some ground on the global ranking, placing 15th this year compared to 14th the year prior. In contrast, the U.S. climbed three places in this years report and ranked just under Canada with a score of 6.97 (7.0 after rounding).

The Dominican Republic comes in last place in the region. While the Dominican Republic has experienced impressive economic growth over the last 25 years, the country was hit hard by the global pandemicin 2020, approximately 270,000 people fell into poverty, and the economy is still struggling to reach its pre-pandemic levels.

Current Mood: Content (5.8)

Uruguay retains its top spot as the happiest country in South America. It continues to rank high on the list because of its high income per capita, relatively low levels of poverty, and strong middle class.

While Uruguay was not immune to the impacts of COVID-19, the country was able to transition smoothly to online learning and was the first country in the region to reopen schools.

In last years World Happiness Report, Colombia was the most improved country in the region. But this year, its dropped 14 places on the global ranking, making it the least improved country in this years report.

While Colombia has made significant strides towards elevating extreme poverty in the last few decades, it still has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Latin America. In 2020, its top 10% of workers took home more than 50% of national income.

Current Mood: Happy (6.5)

Finland is not only the happiest country in Europe, but it also takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, for the fifth year in a row. Finland is one of five Nordic countries to place in the top 10. Denmark comes in second place, followed by Iceland in third.

Romania was the most improved country in Europe, climbing 18 spots on the global ranking since last years report. Over the last decade, the country has seen some of the most significant economic growth in the European Union and was able to bounce back quickly from its COVID-19- triggered slump.

Ukraine ranks in last place, making it the unhappiest country in Europe. Ukraine has experienced ongoing challenges since the Maidan Uprising peaked in 2014. Events in the country have recently taken a turn for the worse, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. As a result of the conflict, over 3 million people have fled the country.

Current Mood: Its Complicated (5.2)

Turkmenistan is the most improved country in the region, rising 19 places on the global ranking since last years report. The countrys boost could be explained by its rapid economic growth in recent years. In 2021, the countrys GDP grew by an estimated 6.3%.

For the last two years, Lebanon has been dealing with a slew of crises. In 2020, COVID-19 spurred an economic crisis thats been ranked as one of the top 10 most severe economic crises since the mid-nineteenth century. And on August 4th, 2020, a massive ammonium nitrate explosion left the countrys capital city, Beirut, in shambles.

Current Mood: Neutral (5.6)

Note: As the report only covers 146 countries, Oceania only refers to Australia and New Zealand in this instance.

In this years report, China climbed 12 places on the global ranking, making it the most improved country in East Asia and Oceania. The Chinese government recently identified common prosperity as a top priority, and has made numerous policy shifts in an effort to combat inequality and eradicate poverty.

On the flipside, Thailand has improved the least in the region, likely because of the significant toll that COVID-19 had on the countrys economy. In 2020, economic growth shrunk by 6.1% in Thailandthe countrys worst contraction since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Thailands economy is not expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.

Current Mood: Unhappy (4.5)

With a regional score of 4.5, Africa ranks as the unhappiest region worldwide. Zimbabwe remains the most unhappy country in the region, as it continues to struggle with high levels of poverty. In 2021, approximately 6.1 million people were living below the international poverty line.

Mauritius remains the happiest country in the region, likely because of its relatively high levels of income. Its worth noting that Mauritius became a High-Income country in July 2020, but slipped back to its Upper-Middle-Income status in 2021 because of the global pandemic.

Were into our third year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and its clear that countries worldwide are still reeling from the pandemics devastating health, social, and economic impact. Its unclear when things will fully return to normalif ever. But on the bright side, countries are slowly showing signs of recovery.

Editors note: Weve adjusted the How is Happiness Measured portion of this article to better reflect the methodology used in the World Happiness Report

Read more here:

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