5 things we learned from the world happiness report

LIFESTYLE

5 things we learned from the world happiness report

Taline McPhedran Special to CTVNews.ca
Published Wednesday, March 16, 2016 2:24PM EDT

It sounds cliche: If you鈥檙e feeling blue, put on a happy face. But science has found that forcing yourself to smile can actually work to make you feel better. (Sergey Furtaev / shutterstock.com)

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Five years ago, the United Nations recognized the pursuit of happiness as a world-wide aspiration that coincided with their 2030 Millennium Development goals. measures happiness in 157 countries by gathering data and posing questions to roughly 3000 people. The most important question is:

"Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would say you personally feel you stand at this time?"

Here are five things we've learned from the 2016 World Happiness Report.

1. Canada is the sixth happiest country in the world

With a score of 7.404 points out of 10, Canada is the top non-Western European country in the world happiness rankings. It went down one spot from the 2015 ranking where Canada was positioned 5th with 7.427 points.

2. Four nations have named happiness ministers

Each of Bhutan, Ecuador, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela has added new positions to their top level of government in the form of a happiness minister. from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister and ruler of Dubai, the happiness minister in the UAE will, "align and drive government policy to create social good and satisfaction."

3. Greece faced the biggest decline in happiness

From 2005-2007 to 2013-2015, Greece had the biggest point decline in happiness with -1.294 points. The report attributed the massive well-being loss to more than just the economic crisis, explaining that the underlying social fabric proved to be too weak to withstand the crisis. In some cases, a strong social fabric after enduring a crisis can actually increase happiness levels, according to the report.

4. The world's average distribution of happiness is鈥� well, average

A combination of all of the answers from the Cantril ladder question left the world with a mean happiness of 5.535 out of 10. Northern America and Australia and New Zealand had the highest mean happiness of 7.125 while sub-Saharan Africa had the lowest mean happiness of 4.370.

5. The top 10 and the bottom 10 are relatively unchanged

The top 10 ranked countries remained the same as the 2015 ranking, with some countries switching positions, while the bottom six countries remained the same. The top ranked country was Denmark, with a happiness score of 7.526 and Burundi remained the last ranked country with a score of 2.905. The top 10 is made up mostly of Western-European countries while the bottom 10 is made up mostly of sub-Saharan African countries.