What Can Data Tell Us About Happiness Throughout The World
Everyone in the world wants to be happy, but happiness is difficult to measure, as a result this article might not be accurate, nonetheless The World Happiness report provided data regarding how happy each country is and this blog will analyze this data and provide a simple insight about our worlds happiness.
This dataset was discovered on Kaggle. I found the answers to the following questions:
- Which country is considered to be the happiest?
- Which region is considered to be the happiest?
- What can we tell about the people living in the top 5 happiest countries?
- How did the happiness score change throughout the years?
- Which countries had the most positive change in their score?
Which Country Is Considered To Be The Happiest?
Finland, Iceland and Denmark have always ranked at the top 5, their happiness score remained stable and high as the years passed by. However, the title of the happiest country in the world goes to Finland, which ranked the first every year from 2018 to 2021.
What is interesting about the results is that in general a happy country has happy neighboring countries and vice versa. The 5 countries at the top of the list are all from the same region and are very close to each other.
Which Region Is Considered To Be The Happiest?
The happiest region from 2018 to 2021 is North America and ANZ , followed by Western Europe . You can hover over the Sunburst map to view countries in each region. The below table summarizes the happiest country by region
What Can We Tell About The People Living In The Top 5 Happiest Countries?
The countries that ranked at the top 5 have high social support, and the freedom to make choices in their lives. Among the top Switzerland has the highest GDP per capita, and Iceland has the highest social support and freedom of choice.
What is interesting about this summary is that people living in the least happiest countries donate more than those at the top, despite suffering economically.
Even though Finland is ranked the 1st in it’s happiness score it has the lowest average age among the top 5, with Switzerland being at the lead in the Age factor. The average life expectancy in the top 5 happiest countries in 2021 is 73 years old.
How did the happiness score change throughout the years?
Some Countries had negative change in their happiness score for instance Afghanistan had the highest negative change in 2021; however, majority of the countries had an increase in their happiness score as the years pass by. The country with the highest positive change in 2021 is Mozambique.
Conclusions
- Finland has been the happiest country in the world for 4 years now.
- The countries at the top 5 are in Western Europe.
- Among the top; Switzerland has highest average healthy life expectancy and GDP per capita, while Iceland has highest social support and freedom of choice.
- The average healthy life expectancy in the top 5 happiest countries is 73 years old.
- North America, Australia & New Zealand are the happiest regions in the world.
- The Majority of the countries are having a positive change in their happiness score.
- Mozambique had the highest positive change in year 2021.
- Afghanistan had the highest negative change in year 2021.
