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Today, we celebrate the International Happiness Day, and as usual, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) publishes the 2018 edition of the World Happiness Report.
«The goal of the World Happiness Report is to study science, to measure and to understand well-being subjectively», reads the introductory note. Several criteria are taken into account to achieve this report: GDP per capita, social assistance, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and the absence of corruption.
The 2018 edition contains a characteristic that sets it apart from other years: the assessment of expatriates and natives in each country. A fairly large sample of expatriates has been studied to give a reasonable estimate. Moreover, the data used are not based on the 2015-2017 happiness rankings, but rather on the studies available since the beginning of the Gallup World Poll (GWP) in 2005.
According to the criteria taken into account to generate happiness and well-being in the 156 countries surveyed, Finland climbs to the first place in the world, followed by Norway (which was at the top of the ranking in 2017), then Denmark and Iceland. The last on the list are three sub-Saharan countries: South Sudan (154th), Central African Republic (155th) and Burundi (156th). The warring nations of the Middle East are also at the bottom of the World Happiness Report, namely Syria (150th) and Yemen (152th).
Libya is ahead of the North African countries
In the Maghreb region, Morocco (85th) is in the middle and is only one place below Algeria (84th), while Tunisia is at the 111th place. More generally, in North Africa, Libya is the happiest country (70th), while Egypt is the saddest country in the region (122nd).
The United Arab Emirates (21st) are once again first in the ranking of the happiest Arab countries in the world, followed closely by Qatar in the 32nd place, and Saudi Arabia comes right after at the 33rd place.
The country with the highest rate of depression in the world
Morocco is less happy than in 2017 since it loses a place. The evolution is also noted in the World Happiness report, since Morocco is one of the countries where «change in terms of happiness» was the most noticed. It is indeed in the 8th place.
For the record, in 2016, the Kingdom was the 90th, and the 92nd in 2015. Morocco remains in a positive path: it is the only African country to have recorded such a change in its Happiness index, since Algerians are at the 90th place and Tunisians are ranked 121st. The title holders in this ranking are Togo (1st), Latvia (2nd) and Bulgaria (3rd).
An alarming finding is however indicated in this report. Morocco is one of the countries with the highest amount of depressive people in the world (956 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), Portugal and Sweden are at the second place ( 702 per 100,000) and then the United States (679 per 100,000).
