- The World Happiness Report of 2022 features a ranking of 146 countries globally ranked in the order of happiness in the country.
- The ranking uses life evaluations as a measure of the quality of life in countries.
- Mauritius comes first in Africa, but 52nd on the list while Zimbabwe is ranked as the least happiest country in Africa at number 144.
According to The World Happiness Report 2022, Mauritius is the happiest country in Africa. However, it is only #52 in the global list of 146 countries. Zimbabwe is the unhappiest country in Africa and third from the bottom of the list, at #144.
“Happiness rankings are based on life evaluations as the … measure of the quality of people’s lives.”
According to the report, “Life evaluations provide the most informative measure for international comparison because they capture quality of life in a more complete and stable way than emotional reports based on daily experiences”.
The six key variables related to life evaluations are: GDP per capita; social support; healthy life expectancy; freedom; generosity; corruption. However, the index is not based on an index of these six factors, but on “individuals’ assessments of their lives”. The report reflects averaged 2019-2021 survey data, as all countries are not surveyed every year.
Finland is ranked #1, with a score of 7.821, for the fifth year in a row.
There are another four Nordic countries in the top ten (Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway), as well as three from Europe (Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg), plus Israel and New Zealand.
At the bottom of the list are: Afghanistan – #146 with a score of 2.404; Lebanon – #145 with a score of 2.955; Zimbabwe – #144 with a score of 2.995. So there is an enormous gap between the countries at the top of the list and those at the bottom.
There is also wide variation in Africa. The score for Mauritius was 6.071 (#52). The next three African countries are a long way behind: Libya is second at #86 (5.330), followed by Ivory Coast at #88 (5.235) and South Africa at #91 (5.194).
However, a number of countries on the continent are not included in the index, as no data is available, including for Angola, DRC, CAR, South Sudan, Sudan Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Western Sahara.
The next seven African countries on the list which makes up the happiest 10 countries in Africa are as follows:
Gambia #93 (5.173)
Algeria #96 (5.122)
Liberia #97 (5.122)
Congo #99 (5.075)
Morocco #100 (5.060)
Mozambique #101 (5048)
Cameroon #102 (5.048)
Looking back, to the 2008-2012 data, the ten countries that show the biggest gains are all outside Africa. However, there are four African countries in the list of the ten countries that show the biggest drops: Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana.
