Norway Ranked Happiest Country Worldwide

Norway has been declared the country with the happiest population in the world. The evaluation is contained in the World Happiness Report published on Monday and drafted by the organisation Sustainable Development Solutions Network at the request of the UN.

The report was published on International Happiness Day - March 20.

Denmark and Iceland rank immediately after Norway in the Top 3. The Top 10 is completed by Switzerland, Finland, Holland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

In spite of having swapped places, the ten happiest countries remain the same as last year. Germany ranks 16th, Great Britain is 19th, France is 31st and the USA 14th.

People are unhappiest in Rwanda, Syria, Tanzania, Burundi and the Central African Republic which ranks last.

Bulgaria ranks 105th out of a total of 155 countries which places the country in the second half of the ranking. Countries like Egypt, the Palestinian Territories, Macedonia, Greece, Venezuela, Turkey and Colombia rank ahead of Bulgaria.

According to the head of the organisation and author of the report Jeffrey Sachs, "happy countries are those where there is a healthy balance between material wealth … and social capital which presupposes a high rate of confidence in society, low inequality indices and confidence in the government".

The ranking of happy countries is drafted on the basis of six factors - Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, average life expectancy, social support, confidence in the government, freedom of people to make choices regarding their own lives, as well as generosity which is evaluated on the basis of the amount of charity donations.