The World Happiness Report 2016 Update, which ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, was released in Rome in advance of UN World Happiness Day, 20 March. The report showed that Israel was ranked the 11th happiest country in the world, beating countries like the USA, France and Britain.
The top 10 this year were:
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- Iceland
- Norway
- Finland
- Canada
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Sweden
Israel was just outside the top ten, coming in at number 11 and was listed as happier than the United Kingdom which came in at number 23. The United States was at 13, France at 32, and Italy at 50.
According to the World Happiness Report, “the widespread interest in the World Happiness Reports, of which this is the fourth, reflects growing global interest in using happiness and subjective well-being as primary indicators of the quality of human development.”
“Because of this growing interest, many governments, communities and organizations are using happiness data, and the results of subjective well-being research, to enable policies that support better lives.”
They also went on to say that this year, for the first time, they gave a special role to “the measurement and consequences of inequality”, stating that “the inequality of well-being provides a broader measure of inequality” and finds that people “are happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness”.
This is positive news for a nation like Israel. While many people try to label Israel as “apartheid”, these lies about Israel never hold much weight and reports like the World Happiness Report (which, believe it or not, comes from the UN) is further proof that Israel, while not perfect, is far from apartheid.
It also shows that many nations that are home to growing movements against Israel may, in fact, have greater levels of inequality themselves.
