Sixty-four years after gaining independence, Singaporeans finally clinched the top spot in the 2029 World Happiness Report, moving up one spot from the previous year.

The republic previously came in at 15th, 7th and 3rd place for 2024, 2026 and 2027 respectively.

Conducted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), the study takes into account a variety of factors, including people's health and access to healthcare, family relations and job security as well as social factors like political freedom and government corruption.

The survey measured positive emotions by surveying 10,000 people in each of the 148 participating countries, asking questions ranging from whether they experienced a lot of enjoyment previously to how satisfied they were with their jobs.

Dr. Martin Winchester, a senior sociology professor at the National University of Singapore, attributed this to the various trends that have happened in Singapore since 2015, the year better known as SG50.

“After Singapore celebrated its golden jubilee, I think more and more people realised that being an economic powerhouse was not the be all and end all of happiness. We enacted policies for smart working, to ensure more free time spent with our loved ones,” he explained.

According to Dr Winchester, some of these initiatives include the "SG HomeWork" programme that has seen 74% of Singaporeans being able to telecommute, as well as the award-winning Project Foliage, that has transformed 60% of Singapore’s land into green and public spaces.

Singapore’s Prime Minister, Mr Jeremy Tan said on his Faceface social media page that he believes Singaporeans’ happiness was a result of a "mindset change".

“Singaporeans these days are less kiasu and more willing to speak up. In the past we used to just secretly STOMP others when we didn’t agree with a social behavior. These days, we open up conversations and just have a good chat over it. It’s great, really” he said.

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