How Happy Is Georgia?

The World Happiness Report 2019, an annual publication of United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network that contains rankings of national happiness and analysis of the data from various perspectives, has ranked Georgia 119th out of 156 states.

Other countries of the region have better results than Georgia. For example, Russia was ranked 68th, Azerbaijan- 90th, Turkey-79th and Armenia - 116th. 

The overall rankings of country happiness are based on the pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys from 2016-2018 and show both change and stability. 

In the report, the top ten positions are held by the same countries as in the last three years, although with some swapping of places.

All of the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, health, life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity. Among the top countries, differences are small enough that year-to-year changes in the rankings are to be expected.

The survey reads that the top 10 happiest countries, 2019 are:

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

Meanwhile, the 10 unhappiest countries, 2018 are South Sudan, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.

This year’s World Happiness Report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes.

By Thea Morrison