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It’s not uncommon to struggle to feel happy from time to time, with the various challenges that life throws at us weighing us down, but there are many ways that we can boost our happiness. These range from getting more sleep, to spending more time outdoors or consuming a healthier, more balanced diet.
Yet, many of us might feel that we’d be happier if we were in a different situation, living in a different place, where happiness was that much easier to achieve. Well, we wanted to put this idea to the test.
That’s why NiceRx has analyzed 49 countries from around the world, measuring them against a range of happiness factors, to create a guide to the happiest nations on the planet. We’ve also compared happiness levels in all 50 states for those of us who prefer the home comforts of familiar soil.
So, is there a distant land where happiness is taken as a given? Or is this just a case of the grass being greener on the other side?
Here we take a look at the ten countries with the highest overall happiness score. Are they what you were expecting? And could you see yourself living in any of these happy places?
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The happiest country in the world is Switzerland, which scored 9.08 on our happiness scale. Switzerland scored a very high 195.06 on the Quality of Life Index and benefits from having one of the most long-lived populations in our study, with the average Swiss life expectancy standing at 83.10 years.
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Denmark came second with an overall Happiness Score of 8.84. Denmark scored well across the board, with particularly strong results when it came to the affordability of property for those living and working in the country. Danes also benefit from having a government that most people trust, as the country received a very high Corruption Perception Index score of 88.
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Finland is another country that scored well across the board, and as a result, finished in third place with a Happiness Score of 8.71. Like the top two scoring countries, Finland has a very high safety rating, a good life expectancy, low perceived corruption, and a good quality of life rating.
Having looked at the top performers, we now turn our attention to those countries that didn’t rank so highly. Despite the low ratings, would you still consider a new life in these countries?
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We have a new country ranked as the unhappiest place to live, and that is Indonesia which had a happiness score of just 0.95. The country performed particularly poorly on the quality of life index, while also scoring just 0.5 on the property affordability index, showing that Indonesia is a difficult place to earn enough for a secure and happy life.
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Argentina took second place with a happiness score of 1.12. Despite having a decent quality of life score, Argentina has the lowest property affordability index score, as well as a low safety score. The South American country also had one of the worst corruption perception scores at 38.
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Colombia completes our top three list of unhappiest countries with a happiness score of 1.36. Like Argentina in second place, Colombia also has a low property affordability index score, as well as a low corruption perception score. It was also ranked fourth for its quality of life score.
So, are you dreaming of a happier life abroad? Or are you perfectly happy with life in your country? Check out our full rankings to see how your home country stacks up on the global stage.
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Having looked at the happiness levels in some of the major countries from across the world, we now turn our attention to domestic happiness. Here, we’ve looked at how each of the 50 states compare across a range of happiness-related factors and have ranked them according to an overall Happiness Score.
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Hawaii is the happiest state in the whole country, scoring 9.08 on our ranking. The Aloha State is often seen as a dream destination for seekers of sun, fun, and happiness, and these scores seem to support that notion. Hawaii has the lowest rate of serious mental illness and the longest life expectancy in the country at 80.7 years.
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Despite having a lower happiness score than last year's 8.82, Connecticut maintains its position as the second happiest state. Connecticut has the third highest mean household income as well as a really high safety score.
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Completing our top three is Massachusetts, replacing New Jersey who dropped to fourth. Massachusetts has the second highest mean household income, as well as one of the lowest poverty rates at 9.85%.
At the other end of the scale are the least happy states in the country. These parts of the USA perform much more poorly across our range of happiness factors, making them more difficult places to live a happy life.
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Last year’s third most unhappy state in the USA has jumped to the top spot, with a Happiness Score of 0.65, taking the place of Mississippi. Arkansas has the highest percentage of adults with serious mental illness at 5.45%, as well as one of the lowest mean household incomes.
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Louisiana is the second least happy state in the country, with a Happiness Score of 0.99. Louisiana has the lowest safety score and the second highest number of homicides per 100,000 people. Arkansas also has a really high poverty rate, and the lowest safety score.
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Last year’s unhappiest state is now ranked as the third unhappiest state to live in, completing our top three with a happiness score of 1.43. Mississippi has the lowest life expectancy of any other state, as well as the lowest mean household income at $65,156. Mississippi’s poverty rate and safety score are the lowest and second lowest respectively too.
Didn’t see your state in our top and bottom tables? Find it in our full ranking table below to see how it compares, and consider whether a move might be a good thing for your own personal happiness.
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We wanted to find the happiest places in the world, both in the USA and globally. To do this, we divided our study into two sections, one looking at happiness levels in all 50 states, with the other comparing happiness across 49 countries from around the world.
For our state-level analysis, we used CDC data to find out the life expectancy and homicide rate in each state. We then used data from World Population Review to record the mean household income and safety rating for each state and used Data USA to find each state’s rates of mental illness and poverty.
These factors cover a range of different topics, from health and social affairs to economic matters. This provided us with a good overview of the different stresses and strains that people living in these states might experience.
Once we had collected the data, we then combined it into a single “Happiness Score” that gave equal weighting to each factor and produced an overall score out of ten. This allowed us to rank the states by their happiness levels and reveal the happiest and most unhappy parts of the country.
For our national-level study, we created a list of 49 countries to investigate. These included members of the EU and EEA, the G20, and OECD countries, along with several other major economies.
We used data from Numbeo to find the safety scores for each country, as well as each nation’s scores on the Affordability Index and Quality of Life Index. Next, we used World Bank data to find the life expectancy in each country and used Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index to record levels of perceived corruption in public life. We also took each country’s score from the 2021 World Happiness Report, which looked at a range of additional indicators.
As with the state-level portion of our study, we combined the scores for each country into a single, equally-weighted Happiness Score which allowed us to directly compare the countries, rank them according to happiness, and reveal the happiest places in the world.
All data is accurate from 29.09.2022.
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NiceRx helps Americans source affordable medication, such as Breo Ellipta, Myrbetriq, Anoro Ellipta, Dexilant and more.