Singapore ranked happiest country in Asia for 2 years running, PH 5th

Singapore also ranked as the happiest country in Asia for 2023, for the second time in a row. FILE PHOTO: The Straits Times/Asia News Network

SINGAPORE – Singapore has been named the 30th happiest country globally for 2021-2023, according to the World Happiness Report 2024.

Finland topped the charts, with Denmark and Iceland securing the following two spots out of the 143 countries surveyed. Coming in the last three spots were Lesotho, Lebanon and Afghanistan, respectively.

Singapore clinched the 25th spot in the 2023 global report, 27th in 2022 and 32nd in 2021.

READ: Philippines rises 23 spots in World Happiness Report

The ranking in each year’s report is based on the average score from the three preceding years.

The annual report – released on March 20 – was introduced in 2012 to support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

The data is obtained from US market research company Gallup and organisations such as World Bank and World Health Organisation.

Singapore also ranked as the happiest country/territory in Asia for 2023, for the second consecutive year. Philippines came in fifth place, Thailand at seventh, and Malaysia at eighth.

READ: Gloomy youth pull US, western Europe down global happiness ranking

There were six key factors analyzed, said the report, such as the country’s gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption.

However, there were also scores that were based solely on individuals’ assessment of their own lives, based on a poll that asked them to rank how happy they were from one to eight, with eight being the maximum score.

Singapore was ranked 54th for 2021-2023 when comparing respondents aged below 30, and 26th for those over 60 years old.

The countries in the top 10 global index have remained largely the same, with Costa Rica and Kuwait being new entrants to the top 20 list for 2023. The United States fell out of the top 20 for the first time in the 12-year history of the report, landing at 23rd.

“Singapore did very well in terms of GDP per capita, one of the highest ranking in our dataset,” the report’s editor and co-author Wang Shun told CNBC in an interview.

“That means Singapore’s Government is really clean, and its people really have a very low perception of corruption… even lower than Denmark or Norway.”

The top 10 happiest countries/territories in Asia:

1. Singapore
2. Taiwan
3. Japan
4. South Korea
5. Philippines
6. Vietnam
7. Thailand
8. Malaysia
9. China
10. Mongolia