Malaysia is 51st happiest country in the world

NEW YORK: If happiness could be measured the way a country's economic performance is measured in terms of gross national product or gross domestic product, then Malaysia would be the world's 51st happiest country.

This is the conclusion drawn in the United Nations' so-called “World Happiness Report” recently released at its headquarters in New York.

The report, commissioned for the UN Conference on Happiness held in New York on Monday, was derived from survey responses received from 2005 until mid-2011 to “measure the happiness level of 156 countries”.

In Malaysia's case, a number of factors led to its 51st ranking.

Materialistic prosperity of individuals may have been one thing but wealth, usually an indicator of a person's material well-being, was not the only crucial factor in this determination. Factors such as a person's general disposition, the level of contentment with basic aspirations were also taken into account.

Rich Scandinavian countries such as Denmark, Finland and Norway took the top three rankings. Singapore was ranked 33rd and Thailand, 52nd.

The world's richest nation, the United States, landed at 11th position, with Japan at 44th and communist China at 111th position.

According to polls taken from 2005 to 2011, these were the happiest countries:

1.     Denmark

2.     Finland

3.     Norway

4.     Netherlands

5.     Canada

6.     Switzerland

7.     Sweden

8.     New Zealand

9.     Australia

10.  Ireland

The United States ranks 11th, just after Ireland. The unhappiest countries were Togo (ranked last), Benin, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Comoros, Haiti, Tanzania, Congo and Bulgaria. Bhutan, which pioneered the happiness index, is not included in the Gallup World Poll. (Other surveys rank countries differently from Gallup.