Vietnam Jumps Four Places in Global Happiness Ranking

Vietnam ranks 79th in the United Nations' World Happiness Report 2021. Chart: World Happiness Report

This year’s report is notable for specifically focusing on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and how people from different places have fared, according to VOV.

The latest list sees Vietnam climb to 79th from 83rd and rank above several other Asian countries, such as China in 84th, Malaysia in 81st, and Myanmar down to 126th.

Elsewhere, Finland successfully defended its title as the world’s happiest nation in a year marked by the pandemic, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, and Iceland.

The United States only finished in 19th, while the UK dropped to 18th place from 13rd as they grapple with the wider mental health ramifications caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan came in at the bottom of the list.

Photo: Pixabay

Last March, Vietnam ranked 83rd out of 156 economies in the global happiness report released in 2020.

The report was prepared by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a global initiative launched by the United Nations (U.N.) in 2012.

The rankings were based on an average of three years of surveys between 2017 and 2019, meaning there's overlap in the data from previous years, and include six factors such as level of gross domestic product, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and absence of corruption in government or business, the report said.

The report released in 2020 marked the first time the UN ranked 186 cities around the world by residents’ perception of their own current well-being and future outlook based on how positively their inhabitants evaluate their expected future lives, VNE wrote.

Photo: VNE

Meanwhile, the Happy Planet Index (HPI) report compiled by the U.K.-based New Economics Foundation has earlier announced Vietnam the fifth happiest country worldwide. As such, Vietnam officially became the happiest country in Asia according to HPI, with the rest of the top five made up of Mexico, Colombia and Vanuatu.

The HPI focuses on the four elements that contribute to a happy life in 140 countries: wellbeing, life expectancy, inequality of outcomes and ecological footprint.

(vietnamtimes.org.vn)