The happiest places on Earth

In April, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network published the third edition of its World Happiness Report, which – just like the name suggests – is a ranking of all the countries in the world by happiness. The experts behind the report assess nations in categories such as economics, psychology, health and public policy to determine the state’s overall happiness.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results of the World Happiness Report are pretty similar to the Social Progress Imperative’s ranking of countries that best meet basic human needs, which I reported on last month. All three of the world’s happiest countries (see the graphic below) are among the top eight in terms of social progress. Funny how that works, huh?

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve also included these nifty maps from MoveHub that show happiness levels around the world, using data from yet another global happiness tracker, the Happy Planet Index.

[Dawn Cherie Araujo is staff reporter for Global Sisters Report based in Kansas City, Missouri. Follow her on Twitter @Dawn_Cherie.]