Sri Lanka is happier in 2016: World Happiness Report

Sri Lanka has become happier this year, according to the 2016 World Happiness Report released Thursday.

The Fourth World Happiness Report, which is an update to its third annual report in 2015, provides a fuller accounting of the distribution of happiness among people within each country and region.

The 2016 update ranks Sri Lanka at 117th position with 4.415 points, 15 notches up from the 132nd position in 2015 with 4.271 points.



The report, released in advance of UN World Happiness Day on 20 March, evaluated 156 countries on a number of factors and assigned a score on a scale of zero to 10 with 10 representing the best possible life and 0 the worst. It is based on Gallup World Poll data collected from people in more than 150 countries averaged over the years 2013-2015.

This year, for the first time, the World Happiness Report gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.

The 2015 Report ranked Denmark at the top of the list, followed closely by Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi were at the bottom of happiness, according to the report. In South Asian region Pakistan ranked at 92nd, India at 118th, Nepal at 107th and Bangladesh at 110th.