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Singapore has been ranked as the happiest country in Asia and the 25th happiest country in the world in 2023.

It scored a 6.587 out of 8 for average life evaluation in the United Nation’s (UN) World Happiness Report 2023.

The rankings were published on Mar. 20, designated as the International Day of Happiness by the UN General Assembly since 2012.

Singapore's results were an improvement from the previous years.

Singapore ranked 27th globally in 2022, and 32nd in 2021.

The country's rule of law was highlighted in the report, particularly the Singapore Prison Reform of 1998.

The report said that it's a "good example" of prisoners, wardens and the community collaborating to enable prisoners to have better lives.

Additionally, the country ranked 27th in terms of the happiness gap between the top and bottom halves of the population.

How the ranking was determined

The happiness scores were determined via a global survey for people in over 150 nations, with data from the Gallup World Poll.

The average life evaluations were done over three preceding years, meaning that the Covid-19 years of 2020 to 2022 were taken into consideration.

The variables that determined the scores were:

1. Gross domestic product per capita
2. Social support
3. Health life expectancy
4. Freedom to make life choices
5. Generosity
6. Perception of corruption

A seventh factor, Dystopia, was used as a benchmark against which all countries can be favourably compared.

Rankings

Here are the top-scoring places in Asia, along with their global ranking (in descending order):

1. Singapore (25th)
2. Taiwan Province of China (27th)
3. Kazakhstan (44th)
4. Japan (47th)
5. Malaysia (55th)
6. Republic of Korea (57th)
7. Thailand (60th)
8. Mongolia (61st)
9. Kyrgyzstan (62nd)
10. China (64th)

Notably, no country in Asia made it into the top 10 global rankings.

Finland retained its top spot for the sixth year, attaining a score of 7.804 out of 8.

The happiest countries in the world are (in descending order):

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Israel
5. Netherlands
6. Sweden
7. Norway
8. Switzerland
9. Luxembourg
10. New Zealand

The least happy country is Afghanistan, ranked at 137th.

Optimistic results

In an interview with CNN, one of the report’s authors John Helliwell said that benevolence to others “went up dramatically in 2021, stayed high in 2022.”

Life evaluations have also remained “remarkably resilient” despite the pandemic, according to the report.

“Even during these difficult years, positive emotions have remained twice as prevalent as negative ones,” Helliwell was quoted as saying.

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Top image via Unsplash/Jeremy Julian