According to the United Nations (UN) Happiness Ranking, an annual report with the well-being scores of approximately 140 countries, Brazil is in sharp decline in the ranking. From 2022 to 2023, the nation dropped 11 places, ranking 49th. For last year, with data collected between 2019 and 2021, we were in 38th place.
The trend is confirmed when looking at previous data, such as those from 2020, when Brazil ranked 29th on the list. The furthest the country has come is the 16th position, in 2015. For this measure, 7 main indicators are taken into account, focusing on the annual life assessment by the Gallup World Poll institute.
How is happiness measured?
The institution asks the surveyed population to report, on a scale of 1 to 10, the grade they would give to their own life. Data such as GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, generosity, freedom and perception of corruption are among the indicators also considered for the ranking.
Compared to 2019, generosity is up by around 25%, for example, globally. The World Happiness Report, as it is officially called, is in its 12th edition. Generosity towards others, especially helping others, had a considerable increase in 2021, remaining high in 2022, probably due to the pandemic and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
The feeling of social support remained 2 times stronger than that of loneliness, as well as positive emotions, which were 2 times more prevalent than negative ones, even with the less than encouraging scenarios of recent years. In this edition, Finland ranked first for the sixth time in a row, followed by Denmark and Iceland, in the same positions as last year.
Among the novelties at the top is Israel, which jumped from 9th to 4th. The other 6 countries in the top 10 remained there, with some position changes. They are the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand. Countries from Africa and the Middle East populate the lowest positions, with Lebanon at 136th and Afghanistan at 137th, positions maintained from last year. Sierra Leone ranked 135th, with Zimbabwe at 134th and Botswana at 132nd.
Quality of life and positioning
Some quality of life factors help to explain the positions. In Finland, for example, the state provides enough for those in need, with little need for handouts, increasing well-being. Honesty is common there, with everyone believing that they will have their wallets returned if they lose them on the street, for example. In the United States, which rose one position and ranked 16th, the donation rate is high, with few day-to-day aid actions.
Uruguay is the first Latin American country on the list, and has moved up two spots from last year to 28th. Unlike Brazil, Argentina climbed 5 positions, taking 52nd place. In Portugal, the country with the most Brazilian migrants in the world, the 56th position was maintained. China, the world’s most populous country, ranked 64th, rising 8 places. Interestingly, in Taiwan, which the country considers its province, an independent survey placed it 27th, with Hong Kong, an autonomous territory, ranking 82nd.
Even with the war, Russia rose 10 places to 70th, and Ukraine rose 6 places, from 98th to 92nd. In Afghanistan, which got rid of the American occupation of 2 decades, it is not difficult to imagine the reasons for being the least happy country in the world. Approximately 1,000 responses from residents of each country are collected each year, leading Gallup to make national averages based on 3-year groups.
Another organization, the Ipsos Institute, has released its own assessment, the Global Happiness Study, which is done online. With data from 22,000 people in 32 countries, against 137 from the UN, the data was very different. Brazil, for example, ranked as the 5th happiest country, where 83% of respondents considered themselves happy or very happy. In the previous year, the same groups reached the mark of 63%.
Happier than Brazil were China (91% of respondents), Saudi Arabia (86%), the Netherlands (85%) and India (84%). Among the worst were Hungary (50%), South Korea (57%) and Poland (58%). The UN survey was released last Monday (20), while that of the Ipsos Institute was released last Friday (17).
Source: World Happiness Report, Institute Ipsos
