The Philippines is the 82nd happiest place out of 157 economies, according to a report released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
The report, which urged nations, regardless of wealth, to tackle inequality and the environment, showed the Philippines as a happy place to live in, one notch higher than China.
The top 10 this year were Switzerland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.
The United States came in at 13th, followed by the United Kingdom at 23rd; France, 32nd, and Italy, 50th.
Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries are the 10 least happy places on earth to live, the report said.
The bottom 10 countries were Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi.
In Asia, Singapore (22nd) was categorized as the happiest country to live in, followed by Thailand (33rd), Taiwan (35th), Malaysia (47th), Japan (53rd) Hong Kong (75th) and Indonesia (79th).
The report, now in its fourth edition, ranked 157 countries by happiness levels using factors such as per capita gross domestic product and healthy years of life expectancy.
It also rated “having someone to count on in times of trouble” and freedom from corruption in government and business.
“When countries single-mindedly pursue individual objectives, such as economic development to the neglect of social and environmental objectives, the results can be highly adverse for human wellbeing, even dangerous for survival,” it said.
“Many countries in recent years have achieved economic growth at the cost of sharply rising inequality, entrenched social exclusion, and grave damage to the natural environment.”
Source and image: Philstar
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