Well, the 2020 World Happiness Report is out, and though the rankings aren’t really surprising, the reasons for them may be. However, what was not surprising was that the data showed that stress and depression increased significantly in 2020. The data also showed that overall life evaluations and happiness rankings were consistent and that the top countries before the pandemic remained the top countries through 2020. This meant that rankings changed little from the prior year. Researchers behind the report attribute this stability to existing higher levels of trust in social services and low levels of economic inequality, both of which helped top-ranking countries keep death rates low and social unity high. For countries that measured lower in those two categories, the results were not as positive.

For those unfamiliar with the World Happiness Report, it is a collection of data that is gathered by researchers with the help of multiple organizations. The report focuses on how well people around the world adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, quality of life, and how governments around the world managed the pandemic.

The last year has been particularly challenging and, unfortunately, includes approximately 2.8 million deaths from COVID-19 (550,000 in the U.S.) and a rise of approximately 4% in the annual number of deaths worldwide. In addition, people surveyed reported greater economic insecurity, anxiety, disruption of life, increased stress, and mental and physical health challenges. While the researchers aimed to be as inclusive as possible, some populations were likely under-represented. This would include those people living in senior-care facilities, prisons, hospitals, refugee camps, and on the streets. Still, the vast majority of the world’s population, including rich, poor, sick, healthy, young, and senior, were represented.

How is happiness measured? For the purposes of this report, happiness is more clearly defined as well-being. Though subjective, well-being relies on three main categories: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions. According to the World Happiness Report 2021, the researchers based their rankings mainly on life evaluations and paid close attention to specific daily emotions to track how COVID-19 affected different aspects of life.

The Gallup Poll, the primary source of data, asked participants to evaluate their current circumstances, life as a whole and quantify their well-being on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the best possible life. The sample pool is typically around 1,000 respondents per country annually, and a three-year average is used to increase the sample size. This year’s report measured happiness in 2020 against averages for 2017-2019.

In the study, respondents were asked whether they laughed a lot and experienced joy. They were also asked whether they experienced specific negative emotions during the day. Life evaluations were then compared to the responses to emotional questions to best capture emotional reports based on daily experiences. The results showed that life evaluations differed more between countries than emotions and are better predictors of happiness than life experiences. Also of interest was that positive emotions were almost three times more frequent than negative emotions globally.

The study also found for 2020 that the same six factors supporting well-being (income, health, someone to count on, freedom, generosity, and trust) continue to be key determinants as in previous years. Trust in government agencies was shown to be the main factor linking happiness and COVID-19. Of all the six factors supporting happiness, only trust played an equally strong role in helping countries to find and implement successful COVID-19 management strategies. It was also shown to be important when COVID-19 management required the whole society to be focused on fighting the pandemic. Societies with higher trust in public institutions and greater income equality were shown to be more successful in fighting COVID-19, as measured by 2020 rates of COVID-19 deaths.

So, what are the top-ranked countries you wonder, and how does the United States measure up in the area of well-being? While the list of countries was too long to list in its entirety, the Top 5 are listed below. Per usual, Scandinavian countries cleaned up. The U.S. was unfortunately listed a bit farther down than those living in North Central PA would expect.

1.) Finland
2.) Denmark
3.) Switzerland
4.) Iceland
5.) Netherlands
19.) United States

In 2021, getting the COVID-19 pandemic under control will certainly be a priority as it will affect public health and the economy, and the quality of life in general. Still, if there is one thing the data from this study showed is that humanity is resilient.