The Philippines are ranked 90th out of 158 nations in the latest World Happiness Report, with Switzerland taking the top spot ahead of Iceland and Denmark, while Syria, Burundi and Togo are listed as the unhappiest places on earth.
This is the third time that the World Happiness Report has been published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Scandinavian nations are once again dominating the top ten of happiest nations on earth:
The Philippines are ranked in 90th place, meaning citizens of the island nation are happier than those of the Dominican Republic (98th), Greece (102nd) or Myanmar (129th), but less happy than people living in Russia (64th), Hong Kong (72nd), Vietnam (75th) or China (84th). This is a small improvement on the last study in 2013, where the Philippines ended up in 92nd place:
Far from just being a simple survey, the World Happiness Report combines complex data collected by experts across fields such as economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health and public policy to show how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.
More and more national and local governments are also using this data for research into policies that will allow their citizens to lead better lives, and to achieve economic, social, and environmental objectives in harmony. This in turn can lead to higher levels of well-being for the present and future generations, with happiness now being a proper measure of social progress and a goal of public policy.
For the Philippines, this means that underneath the omnipresent smiles visible everywhere, there is a lot of work left to be done for the government to ensure citizens are actually happy and content with the way things are going. Here is hoping that the country will rank much higher in the next report.
You can access the complete report for free on the World Happiness Report website:
