The first World Happiness Report was released in 2012 and ranked Lebanon in the 97th position worldwide and 8th position among Arab countries. In the 2015 World Happiness Report, Lebanon dropped 6 spots and was ranked 103rd, which makes sense given the stressful times we’ve been through in the past couple of years. The report also found that “GDP per capita was one of the most important explanatory variables in determining national happiness, along with social support (if you have someone in your life you can count on), healthy life expectancy, freedom (answer to the question “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”), generosity (“Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?”), and government corruption”.
As far as Arab countries are concerned, UAE ranked first followed by Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The least happy country in the region and (almost) worldwide (156th out of 158) is the Syrian one. Worldwide, Switzerland came on top, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Canada and Finland.
Here’s the full list for Arab countries (Rank 2015):
UAE 20
Oman 22
Qatar 28
KSA 35
Kuwait 39
Bahrain 49
Libya 63
Algeria 68
Jordan 82
Morocco 92
Lebanon 103
Tunisia 107
Palestine 108
Iraq 112
Sudan 118
Egypt 135
Yemen 136
Syrian Arab Republic 156
You can check out the full report [here].
Thanks Rami!