The third ever World Happiness Report published by the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network is officially out. This report relies on Gallup survey, which asks respondents to imagine the best possible life for them and then rank their current lives on a 0 to 10 scale, relative to that best life.

This report shows that people of rich countries are, overall, considerably more satisfied with their lives than people in poor countries.

GDP per capita was one of the most important explanatory variables in determining national happiness, along with

• Social support
• Healthy life expectancy
• Freedom
• Generosity
• Government corruption

These six variables explain almost three-quarters of the variation in national annual average ladder scores among countries.

Differences in social support, incomes, and healthy life expectancy are the three most important factors.

Pakistan has beat India in World Happiness Index as Pakistan has emerged world 81th happiest nation out of 158 nations surveyed. India comes in at the 117th place while Afghanistan is the sixth least happy country.

The report identifies the following five happiest countries with the highest levels of happiness:

1. Switzerland
2. Iceland
3. Denmark
4. Norway
5. Canada

Increasingly happiness is considered a proper measure of social progress and goal of public policy. The report suggests that wellbeing & happiness are critical indicators of a country’s social and economic progress and the advancement of happiness should be the key aim of public policy. The ability to recover quickly from adversity, pro-social behavior and mindfulness are described as neural correlates of happiness in the report.