Happiness report comes with few surprises

Finland remained the world's happiest country for a seventh straight year in the annual United Nations-sponsored World Happiness Report.

Hong Kong dropped to 86 from 82 in the rankings, while Taiwan fell to 31 from 27.

The happiness index split the rankings based on age, and the happiest group in Hong Kong was the "upper-middle" while the least happy was the "lower-middle."

The report also found that younger generations were happier than their older peers in most of the world's regions.

Among the young, Hong Kong came in at 97, while Taiwan was at 25.

Singapore was at 30, Japan 51 and Malaysia at 59, all falling in ranking. Countries including China, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam jumped up to happier places - at 60, 58, 53 and 54, respectively. South Korea also moved up to 52 from 57.

The older generation in China propelled the happiness score to 30, while the younger folks gave it a 79.

Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries and regions surveyed.

For the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany were not among the 20 happiest nations, coming in 23rd and 24th respectively.

Scores were based on individual life assessments averaged over the years 2021-23 for the latest report.

Apart from individuals' self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, the happiness ranking took in factors such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.

In the midst of a war, Israel's ranking fell to fifth from fourth.

Lithuania topped the ranking for children and people under 30, while Denmark was the world's happiest nation for those 60 and older.

"In comparing generations, those born before 1965 are, on average, happier than those born since 1980," the report said. "Among millennials [born between 1981 and 1996] , evaluation of one's own life drops with each year of age, while among boomers [born after World War II through 1964] life satisfaction increases with age."