Kenya has moved up eight spots in the most recent evaluation of the global happiness index in 2023 compared to 2022.
Kenya rose to position 111 from 119 in the 2022 World Happiness Report, a Sustainable Development Solutions Network publication.
In the report, released yearly since 2012, Kenya was ranked higher than Tanzania (129), which was listed after Uganda (113).
The COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly affect global average life assessments in the last three years (2020–2022), according to the happiness index released on Wednesday.
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The paper claims that "life assessments have continued to be impressively resilient," with global averages in the COVID-19 years 2020–2022 equal to those in the years before the pandemic (2017–2019).
The report consistently ranks world happiness using survey data from more than 150 nations. The information listed 136 countries as of 2023.
People's trust in institutions, poverty, corruption, and conflicts are among the issues the World Happiness Report considers when calculating happiness levels.
The Growing Happiness Divide In Kenya
Kenya is considered a better country but still has a lower happiness gap than other countries, coming in at 118 between the top and most inferior halves of the population.
Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean next to Madagascar that ranks 59th globally, is Africa's happiest nation.
Paradoxically, anti-government demonstrations in Kenya and three other African nations on March 20 were celebrated as International Happiness Day.
The International Day of Happiness, which the UN General Assembly established in 2012, aims to acknowledge the significance of happiness and health as commonplace objectives and ambitions in people's lives worldwide.
In a protest against President William Ruto's administration, followers of the Azimio Party were led by opposition leader Raila Odinga in Kenya. They demanded that IEBC's recruitment of new members be suspended.
South Africa, Nigeria, and Tunisia are other African nations that have reported protests.
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network identified challenges that African nations might face related to maintaining the rule of law.
The report notes that "the governments' capacity for raising revenue, providing services as a group, upholding the rule of law, preventing civil war, and avoiding persecution is what determines their prosperity and success."
The World's Happiest Country Is Finland.
Finland took first place in the happiness index for the sixth consecutive year, while Lithuania advanced thirty spots into the top 20.
According to the report, "Finland continues to hold the top position for a sixth straight year, and The only Lithuania, which has advanced more than 30 positions since 2017, has entered the top twenty. The survey's important variables included a high life expectancy, a high GDP per person, strong social ties, and low levels of corruption".
The ability to make judgments about one's life and community generosity was also taken into consideration.
Denmark followed Finland as the happiest country. Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand were in order of importance, with Iceland taking the third spot.
