About World Happiness Report
- World Happiness Report is annually published by Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
- The report uses data from Gallup World Poll Data based on Self-Reported levels of Happiness.
- The first edition of the World Happiness Report was published in 2012.
- UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in 2012 proclaiming March 20 to be observed as annually as International Day of Happiness.
The Report ranks countries on six parameters to explain variation in self-reported levels of happiness across the world:
- Social Support: Provides having someone to count on in times of trouble.
- Income measured by GDP per capita: Provides information about the size of the economy and how the economy is performing.
- Healthy Life Expectancy: Also focuses on Mental Health which is a key component of subjective well-being and a risk factor for future physical health and longevity.
- Freedom to make life choices: This also includes human rights. Human Rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, right to work and education etc. Everyone is entitled to these
- Generosity: Measured by donation of money to a charity in the past month. Generosity is a clear marker for a sense of positive community engagement and a central way that humans connect. In all cultures, people are drawn to behaviours which benefit other people.
Absence of corruption measures if people trust their governments and have trust in the benevolence of others.
Rankings:
- Happiest countries: Finland remains the happiest sixth year in a row.
- Least Happy countries: War-torn Afghanistan is the least happy country just below Lebanon.
- India is ranked 125 on World Happiness Rankings.
About Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
- UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network was launched under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.
- SDSN started with 10 thematic working groups focusing on a range of environmental, social and economic topics, which contributed to the debate and ultimately the adoption of SDGs.
- SDSN has now grown and founded its global networks program which is a membership-based alliance of top-tier knowledge-generating institutions focused on sustainable development, organised in national and regional clusters. In 2022, SDSN has over 1700 members in 50 networks across 144 countries.
- SDG Academy: In 2016, SDSN expanded its mission and created the SDG Academy which creates and curates free, open educational resources on sustainable development and offers them as a global public good.
- Six Transformations Framework: In 2019, introduced six SDG Transformations as modular building blocks for SDG achievement. The six transformations provide a shared understanding of how the 17 SDGs can be operationalised.
- Education, Gender and Inequality
- Health, Wellbeing and Demography
- Energy Decarbonisation and Sustainable Industry
- Sustainable Food, Land, Water and Oceans
- Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Digital Revolution for Sustainable Development
- Reports by SDSN: SDSN synthesises knowledge for sustainable development and produces renowned annual reports:
- Sustainable Development Report (SDR)
- World Happiness Report (WHR)
