Posted: March 21, 2016. 2:51 p.m. CST.
By BBN Staff: Belize has been ranked 52 of 157 countries on the World Happiness Report 2016, which was released over the weekend in Rome to commemorate UN World Happiness Day, March 20th.
The study was done by leading experts across fields including economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and others. The report describes how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.
Puerto Rico ranks as the happiest country in the Caribbean at 15 on the overall list, followed by Belize (52nd), Jamaica (73rd), and the Dominican Republic (89th).
The report is the fourth of its kind to be produced, using a variety of factors to measure happiness around the world, since the first World Happiness Report in 2012.
People’s health, access to medical care, family relations, job security, political freedom and levels of government corruption are all among the measures used to assess happiness.
Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs, who helped write the report, said that happiness and well-being should be on every nation’s agenda.
“Human well-being should be nurtured through a holistic approach that combines economic, social and environmental objectives,” he said.
“Measuring self-reported happiness and achieving well-being should be on every nation’s agenda as they begin to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals,” Sachs said.
Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland ranked in the top five of the list. Rounding off the top 10 were Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.
The US came 13th overall, while the UK was ranked in 23rd place in the assessment, after slipping two places from the previous year.
China was ranked in 83rd place, Russia came in 56th place, and India was 118th.
The least happy countries in the world, according to the study, were Burundi, Syria, Togo, Afghanistan and Benin.
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