Nigeria ranked 91st happiest country in the world by UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

NIGERIA has been ranked as the 91st happiest nation on earth according to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report published this week.

In the report published today, Finland was ranked the happiest nation on earth, with Burundi at the bottom of the happiness index. Rather surprisingly, the survey also found that Americans were getting less happy even as their country became richer.

This report ranked 156 countries according to their scores for things such as gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. Finland rose from fifth place in 2017 to oust Norway from the top spot.

As usual, the 2018 top-10 was dominated by Nordic countries and included the likes of Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia. America came in at 18th, down from 14th place in 2017, while Britain was 19th and the United Arab Emirates 20th.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the U S where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries. While income per capita has increased markedly in the U S over the last half-century, the happiness index has been hit by weakened social support networks, a rise in perception of corruption in government and business and declining confidence in public institutions.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs of New York’s Columbia University and head of the SDSN, said: "We obviously have a social crisis in the US due to more inequality, less trust and less confidence in government. It’s pretty stark right now and the signs are not good for the US as it is getting richer and richer but not getting happier.”

“Time will tell but I would say that in general that when confidence in government is low, when perceptions of corruption are high, inequality is high and health conditions are worsening, that is not conducive to good feelings.”

For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organisations, official figures and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries. Finland took top honours in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.

The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years. Professor John Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia, said: "The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born.

“Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries. Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose.”