Released at the start of this week to mark World Happiness Day, the World Happiness Report 2017 ranked Portugal 89th in a list of 155 countries, and found it to be the fourth least happy in Europe.
The report aims to explore happiness and well-being levels in countries around the world based on fundamental factors such as trust in government and social welfare.
Within Europe, only Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria were less happy countries than Portugal.
Norway and Denmark were at the top of the table, followed by Iceland and Switzerland, while countries such as Syria, Tanzania and the Central African Republic were at the bottom.
According to the World Happiness Report, “all of the top four countries rank highly on all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance.
“Their averages are so close that small changes can re-order the rankings from year to year. Norway moves to the top of the ranking despite weaker oil prices. It is sometimes said that Norway achieves and maintains its high happiness not because of its oil wealth, but in spite of it. By choosing to produce its oil slowly, and investing the proceeds for the future rather than spending them in the present, Norway has insulated itself from the boom and bust cycle of many other resource-rich economies. To do this successfully requires high levels of mutual trust, shared purpose, generosity and good governance, all factors that help to keep Norway and other top countries where they are in the happiness rankings.”
It goes on to explain that all of the other countries in the top ten also have high values in all six of the key variables used to explain happiness differences among countries and through time – income, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on in times of trouble, generosity, freedom and trust, with the latter measured by the absence of corruption in business and
government.
“Here too there has been some shuffling of ranks among closely grouped countries, with this year’s rankings placing Finland in 5th place, followed by the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia and Sweden tied for the 9th position, having the same 2014-2016 score to three decimals.”
Compiled by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Network and financed by the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the World Happiness Index is based on average results from six key indicators – GDP per capita, social support, average life expectancy, freedom to make life decisions, generosity and the perception of corruption – over a three-year period.
Over one thousand people from 150 different countries are surveyed annually to achieve the results, which are classified on a scale of 0 to 10, regarding quality of life.
Launched for the first time in Portugal in 2012, the report shows this country has gradually dropped down the ranking; in 2013 it dropped from 73rd to 85th, and then to 89th position this year.
As newspaper Público, which ran the report in-depth, surmised, “the Portuguese last year experienced a year of some conquests but their overall perception of happiness has diminished.”
The report explained, the distance between the top ten classified countries and the bottom ten is explained above all by the GDP per capita and social support.
Taking a wider look at the bigger picture, it concludes people in China are no happier now than they were 25 years ago; much of Africa is struggling, and happiness has fallen in American.