Cyprus ranked 46th in the World Happiness Report 2023, published on Monday.
The country recorded a drop from 41st in 2022 and 39th in 2021, the report shows.
For the sixth year in a row, Finland topped the ranking, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Israel.
Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sierra Leone make up the bottom three of the list of 137 countries.
“The ultimate goal of politics and ethics should be human well-being,” said economist and director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs. “The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a ‘soft’ and ‘vague’ idea but rather focuses on areas of life of critical importance: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues, and good citizenship. We need to turn this wisdom into practical results to achieve more peace, prosperity, trust, civility – and yes, happiness – in our societies.”
The survey is based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, and reflects six variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
This year the survey focused on how Covid-19 affected the distribution of well-being and found life evaluations to be ‘remarkably resilient’, with global averages in the coronavirus years just as high as those in the pre-pandemic period.
The report also looked at the ‘happiness gap’, the difference in happiness between the more and less happy halves of the population.
Cyprus ranked 44th in this listing, while Afghanistan was top. The Netherlands was in second place, followed by Finland, Iceland and Belgium.
“This year’s report features many interesting insights,” said professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University, Lara Aknin, “but one that I find particularly interesting and heartening has to do with pro-sociality. For a second year, we see that various forms of everyday kindness, such as helping a stranger, donating to charity, and volunteering, are above pre-pandemic levels. Acts of kindness have been shown to both lead to and stem from greater happiness.”
The report, a publication of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, draws on global survey data from people in more than 150 countries.
Read more:
Cyprus manages to rise by 10 places in 2021 World Happiness Report despite Covid
