It comes as no surprise that happiest places to live in the world are those with a harmonious lifestyle, where the people are healthier, wealthier and often these places tend to be in Scandinavia.
The UN World Happiness Report (www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2017/) compiles data over three years and takes into effect seven factors including caring, freedom, generosity, good governance, honesty, health and income. Norway is this years champion closely followed by Nordic neighbours Denmark, and Iceland which recovered from a complete financial meltdown 6 years ago, trailed by Switzerland and coming in fifth is Finland.
Serenely for the third consecutive year the UAE has come in as the happiest country in the Arab World according to the UN World Happiness Report 2017, putting the nation at number 21 worldwide. Globally ranking it first in terms of its people’s good health, second in terms of satisfaction with economy and fourth in terms of comfort. GCC neighbours Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain come 35, 37, 39 and 41 respectively. Turkey comes in at number 69 at the bottom half of the table which has a total of 155 listed countries.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai tweeted the news adding ‘We are also ranked first globally regarding the satisfaction of residents from other countries,”. The National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021 launched by Sheikh Mohammad is seen as the main contributor to the UAE’s continued success on the Happiness Report.
Invariably the UAE is the first country in the world to appoint a happiness minister and has launched initiatives across the country including happiness ambassadors, happiness counters and happiness indexes. The latest addition was the renaming of a central Dubai street as ‘Happiness Street’.
Writer: Alp Sarper
BilgiDubai 2017
