Mauritius has been ranked Africa’s happiest Country. The ranking according to World Happiness Report 2019 places Mauritius at the top of the African list and South Sudan at the bottom. South Sudan is equally the world’s least happy country.
The report released Wednesday March 20 and produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in partnership with the Ernesto Illy ranked Finland as the World happiest country followed by Denmark and Norway.
On the global classification, Mauritius occupies the 57 ranking in the world according to the 7th World Happiness Report.
The World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants. The main focus of this year’s report, in addition to its usual ranking of the levels and changes in happinessaround the world, is on migration within and between countries.
The rankings of country happiness are based on the pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys from 2015 to 2017. Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and now Finland have held the top spot in the last four reports.
Factors taken into consideration, were; gross domestic product, social support from friends and family, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perceived corruption and recent emotions of citizens — both happy and sad. Cameroon currently ranks 96th in the world, distancing itself from several other African nations, seven of which are amongst the 10 least happy countries in the world.
All the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being. They are: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. Factors such as civil war, poverty, political instability, economic state and food insecurity among others play a vital rule in why most African states are found to be least happy.
Africa’s happiest
1. Mauritius (57 in the world)
2. Libya (72)
3. Nigeria (85)
4. Algeria (88)
5. Morocco (89)
6. Cameroon (96)
7. Ghana (98)
8. Ivory Coast (99)
9. Benin (102)
10. Congo Brazaville (103)
Africa’s least happy
1. South Sudan (156)
2. Central African Republic (155)
3. Tanzania (153)
4. Rwanda (152)
5. Malawi (150)
6. Botswana (148)
7. Zimbabwe (146)
8. Burundi (145)
9. Lesotho (144)
10. Madagascar (143)
