The Philippines dropped to 61st in the latest ranking of countries and territories in terms of happiness, as surveyed by the Gallup World Poll and other independent experts, from its 52nd position the previous year, according to the World Happiness Report 2021.
Finland, for the fourth time, remains at the top, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
Completing the Top 10, out of the 149 countries and territories that were assessed, are Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Austria.
In the bottom 10 are Burundi, Yemen, Tanzania, Haiti, Malawi, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan.
The latest results are based on the data gathered by the Gallup World Poll from 2018 until 2020, which include answers to a main life evaluation question, the report said.
Respondents are asked to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale, it explained.
The following factors in each country or territory were also considered: levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption.
In the World Happiness Report 2020, which covers data gathered from 2017 until 2019, the Philippines ranked 52nd out of 153 countries and territories.
The latest report, meanwhile, disclosed the scores solely in 2020 in an effort to show the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic to people's happiness.
In this ranking, the Philippines placed 74th out of 95 countries, down from 42nd based on the 2017-2019 average results.
There were a few changes as well in the top countries.
TOP 10 countries in 2020
Finland
Iceland
Denmark
Switzerland
Netherlands
Sweden
Germany
Norway
New Zealand
Austria
The 2021 report said that the pandemic was a big assessment point aside from its original "six key variables" - GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
"This shows that COVID-19 has led to only modest changes in the overall rankings, reflecting both the global nature of the pandemic and a widely shared resilience in the face of it," the report said of the latest findings.
"The countries that performed best in minimizing the direct death toll from COVID-19 were also able to do better on other fronts, including income, employment, and the mental and physical health of the rest of the population," it added.
In its summary, the report said "Although there were significant increases in average sadness and worry, we found that overall life evaluations, and happiness rankings, were (surprisingly) stable."
source: ABS-CBN
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