The Philippines Has Dropped 16 Places Down in the World Happiness Report
It's that time of the year again. International Day of Happiness is celebrated to remind us that, well, how happy we are? Maybe. Anyway, here we are trying to quantify or illustrate our collective happiness through data and personal experience. The annual World Happiness Report can be a good metric to do this.
It has shown us a snapshot of the lives of citizens in a country since its initial publication in 2013. Based on respondent ratings, it looks at the various quality of life factors in a nation. The Philippines can't be too happy about this year's results though, considering that we, unfortunately, have dropped even further down our middle-ish ranking just last year.
The country ranked 76th this year out of 137 countries in the index, falling from 60th place out of 145 nations just a year ago. It had previously scored 5.904 before dipping to 5.523 out of a possible 10. Nevertheless, the Philippines is still the 10th happiest country in Asia.
For the sixth consecutive year, Finland ranked first in the standings. It is followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel, and the Netherlands to round out the top five slots. Afghanistan and Lebanon, meanwhile, continue to be the two unhappiest nations around the world, based on the survey.
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Done by researchers in the U.S., the World Happiness Report uses a single item indicator measure of subjective well-being, relying on the United Nations' Human Development Index, the OECD Better Life Index of 2011, and the Social Progress Index of 2013, among others. It entails asking citizens how satisfied they are with their lives. The report began after the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281, which is the basis for International Day of Happiness.
In 2022, the Philippines had also been the second happiest country in Southeast Asia, according to the report. Interestingly, the 2022 End of Year Survey by the Gallup International Association ranked the Philippines as the happiest country among 34 countries in the world entering 2023. We had a net score of 75 percent. So yeah, we're still a pretty happy, we suppose.
