Malta Is The 40th Happiest Country In The World, Study Finds
Malta has ranked as the 40th happiest country across the globe, dropping three places since 2022, the World Happiness Report has found.
The report studied the life evaluations of 143 countries between 2021 to 2023 to determine which are the happiest countries in the world. It looked into the happiness of people at different stages of life and discovered some interesting insights.
Youth happiness has fallen in Western Europe while happiness at every age has sharply risen in Central and Eastern Europe. In the former Soviet Union and East Asia too, there have been large increases in happiness at every age, while in South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, happiness has fallen at every age. In North America, there was a sharp fall in happiness among the young.
Looking at happiness according to life evaluations among all ages, researchers found that Malta ranked 40th out of 143 countries with a score of 6.346.
The happiest people on the island are the young while the least happy are the upper-middle age group, according to the study.
Malta was followed by Italy and preceded by Panama.
In first place is Finland, followed closely by Denmark. In general, the top 10 countries remained the same since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and they include all five Nordic states. In the next 10, more of a change was registered with a rise in happiness in Eastern Europe, (especially Czechia, Lithuania, and Slovenia).
The least happy country recorded on this index is Afghanistan.
The report presented a second ranking of happiness, this time, among young people – i.e. those under 30. In this index, Malta ranked 57th.
In the ranking of happiness among people over 60, Malta secured 31st place.
Researchers used the Gallup World Poll as the main source of data which asked respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder as well as a numerical figure – with 10 being the best possible life.
The study further found that millennials did the most benevolent acts both before and after the pandemic.
Do you agree with this ranking?
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