The Philippines is the second happiest country in Southeast Asia, according to the annual World Happiness Report released by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Center in the United Kingdom.?
Of 143 states, the Philippines’ standing improved to 53 from last year’s 76 out of 137 countries.
Respondents evaluated their current life as a whole from a score of zero to 10, with 10 being the highest.
The latest ranking is almost similar to the Philippines’ 52nd ranking in the 2020 report, which included data before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the seventh consecutive year, Finland topped the list, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel.
Completing the top 10 were the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia.
Found to be least happy were people in Afghanistan, followed by Lebanon, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Congo, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Eswatini and Zambia.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore ranked first (30th overall).
Following the Philippines were Vietnam (54th), Thailand (58th), Malaysia (59th), Indonesia (80th), Laos (94th), Myanmar (118th) and Cambodia (119th).
The report used three-year data from the Gallup World Poll, published in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
This year, results were based on data from 2021 to 2023.
“Global happiness inequality has increased by more than 20 percent over the past dozen years, in all regions and age groups, to an extent that differs a lot by age and by region,” the report read.
