Switzerland tops in world’s happiest country list

New York, April 24: Switzerland has been topped in the list of world's happiest country, said a survey report issued by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) on Thursday.

Switzerland was followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada in the list while Togo, Burundi, Benin and Rwanda, with civil-war wracked Syria, were listed as least happy country in the world.

The World Happiness Report examined 158 countries and is aimed at influencing government policy.

This year for the first time ever, the Report breaks down the data by gender, age, and region. It finds striking differences, some much larger than have previously been found.

The study bases its rankings on data from the Gallup World Poll and takes into account variables such as real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms.

SDSN was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in August 2012. It mobilizes scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector in support of sustainable development problem solving at local, national, and global scales.

The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The first report was published in 2012, the second in 2013, and the third on April 23, 2015. Leading experts across fields - economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and more - describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.

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