Nigerians 6th Happiest People In Africa, Algeria Africa’s Best – World Happiness Report

Despite
the economic recession and other challenges plaguing Africa’s most
populous country, a new report reveals Nigerians are Africa’s sixth
happiest people. According to the new report released on Monday, Algeria
leads the rest of Africa in happiness, followed by Mauritius.
Strife-torn
Libya is surprisingly ranked third, ahead of Morocco. And even a bigger
surprise, another crisis-torn nation, Somalia is Africa’s fifth
happiest country ahead of Nigeria and South Africa, ranked 7th. Tunisia
is eighth and Egypt ninth, while Sierra Leone comes tenth on the list.



At
the bottom ten are Benin, Madagascar, South Sudan, Liberia, Guinea,
Togo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and the worst of them, Central African
Republic.
On the global stage, Norway displaced Denmark as the world’s happiest country
The
Nordic nations are the most content, according to the World Happiness
Report 2017 produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network
(SDSN), a global initiative launched by the United Nations in 2012.
Nigerians are happy peopleCountries
in sub-Saharan Africa, along with Syria and Yemen, are the least happy
of the 155 countries ranked in the fifth annual report released at the
United Nations.
“Happy countries are the ones that have a healthy
balance of prosperity, as conventionally measured, and social capital,
meaning a high degree of trust in a society, low inequality and
confidence in government,” Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the SDSN and a
special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, said in an
interview.
The aim of the report, he added, is to provide another
tool for governments, business, and civil society to help their
countries find a better way to wellbeing.


Denmark,
Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand,
Australia and Sweden rounded out the top ten countries.
Germany was ranked 16, followed by the United Kingdom (19) and France (31). The United States dropped one spot to 14.
Sachs
said the United States is falling in the ranking due to inequality,
distrust, and corruption and that the economic measures that the
administration of President Donald Trump is trying to pursue, will make
things worse.

“They are all aimed at increasing
inequality – tax cuts at the top, throwing people off the health care
rolls, cutting Meals on Wheels in order to raise military spending. I
think everything that has been proposed goes in the wrong direction.” 

The
rankings are based on six factors — per capita gross domestic product,
healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, social support, and
absence of corruption in government or business.
Sachs would like nations to follow the United Arab Emirates and other countries that have appointed Ministers of Happiness.

“I want governments to measure this, discuss it, analyze it and understand when they have been off in the wrong direction”. 

According
to the report, “the average ladder scores for over four in five African
countries are below the mid-point of the scale. And only two African
countries have made significant gains in happiness over the past decade.
There are also considerable inequalities in life evaluations in African
countries, and this inequality in happiness has increased over the past
years”.


The
report also shows that Africans are optimistic about the future, with
Nigerians the leaders in this regard. It also called on nations to build
social trust and equality to improve the wellbeing of their citizens.