Which are the happiest countries in Africa?

The World Happiness Report Update has released its 2016 report, which is its fourth so far, and it ranks 156 countries by their level of happiness. The report was released today in Rome ahead of UN World Happiness Day, March 20th.

The update made measures each country’s happiness using gross domestic product, life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity, and other qualities to compute the level of their happiness.

According to the update, top 10 countries that made the list of happiest countries in the world this year were also named among the last year’s report, but there are slight changes in their ordering as always.

The update says Denmark retained its top spot, and Switzerland, Iceland and Norway followed closely behind Denmark, as second, third and fourth respectively.

The top 10 are completed, in order, by Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden. The US posed in the 13th spot, taking two steps higher on the list than in 2015.

Unfortunately, in the list released today, eight African countries were ranked among the ten least happy globally.

And the countries include Madagascar, Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi as they took the bottom positions of the international happiness list. Kenya posed at the 122 spot.

But believe it or not Mauritius is listed as the happiest country in Africa listed as 66th happiest country 

Mauritius is a Country in East Africa

Mauritius, a volcanic island nation in the Indian Ocean, is known for its beaches, lagoons and reefs. The mountainous interior encompasses Black River Gorges National Park, with rainforests, waterfalls, hiking trails and native fauna like the flying fox. The capital, Port Louis, blends foreign influences and offers sites such as the Champs de Mars horse track, colonial Eureka plantation and 18th-century botanical garden.

• Capital: Port Louis
• Dialing code: +230
• Country code: MUS
• Currency: Mauritian rupee
• Continent: Africa
• Population: 1.296 million (2013) World Bank

The 2016 update was ushered in at the Bank of Italy, during a three-day series of conferences on happiness and subjective well-being. Another companion volume, the Word Happiness Report 2016 Special Rome Edition, was also released at the same time.

In this year’s report, the World Happiness Report focused specially on the measurement and aftermath of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions.

In former reports, the editors have argued that happiness offers a sound indicator of human welfare than income, poverty, education and health do. The report also measured good government separately.

This year they discovered that people seem happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness. They also discovered that unequal happiness has improved greatly when set side by side with the previous years in most countries, in nearly all the regions in the world, and for the population of the entire world.

We are not unmindful of the fact that different things make different people happy, so we would love to know how you would measure your happiness?

The World Happiness Report is a measure of happiness published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

1 Denmark 7,526 Decrease -0.401
2 Switzerland 7,509 Increase 0.035
3 Iceland 7,501 Steady 0.000
4 Norway 7,498 Increase 0.082
5 Finland 7,413 Decrease -0.259
6 Canada 7,404 Decrease -0.041
7 Netherlands 7,339 Decrease -0.119
8 New Zealand 7,334 Decrease -0.097
9 Australia 7,313 Increase 0.002
10 Sweden 7,291 Decrease -0.017
11 Israel 7,267 Increase 0.258
12 Austria 7,119 Decrease -0.003
13 United States 7,104 Decrease -0.261
14 Costa Rica 7,087 Decrease -0.171
15 Puerto Rico 7,039 Increase 0.446
16 Germany 6,994 Increase 0.486
17 Brazil 6,952 Decrease -0.474
18 Belgium 6,929 Decrease -0.311
19 Ireland 6,907 Decrease -0.238
20 Luxembourg 6,871 Steady 0.000
21 Mexico 6,778 Increase 0.225
22 Singapore 6,739 Increase 0.099
23 United Kingdom 6,725 Decrease -0.161
24 Chile 6,705 Increase 0.826
25 Panama 6,701 Increase 0.191
26 Argentina 6,650 Increase 0.457
27 Czech Republic 6,596 Increase 0.126
28 United Arab Emirates 6,573 Decrease -0.161
29 Uruguay 6,545 Increase 0.804
30 Malta 6,488 Steady 0.000
31 Colombia 6,481 Increase 0.399
32 France 6,478 Decrease -0.336
33 Thailand 6,474 Increase 0.631
34 Saudi Arabia 6,379 Decrease -0.794
35 Taiwan 6,379 Increase 0.190
36 Qatar 6,375 Steady 0.000
37 Spain 6,361 Decrease -0.711
38 Algeria 6,355 Steady 0.000
39 Guatemala 6,324 Increase 0.211
40 Suriname 6,269 Steady 0.000
41 Kuwait 6,239 Increase 0.164
42 Bahrain 6,218 Steady 0.000
43 Trinidad and Tobago 6,168 Increase 0.336
44 Venezuela 6,084 Decrease -0.762
45 Slovakia 6,078 Increase 0.814
46 El Salvador 6,068 Increase 0.572
47 Malaysia 6,005 Decrease -0.132
48 Nicaragua 5,992 Increase 1.285
49 Uzbekistan 5,987 Increase 0.755
50 Italy 5,977 Decrease -0.735
51 Ecuador 5,976 Increase 0.966
52 Belize 5,956 Decrease -0.495
53 Japan 5,921 Decrease -0.446
54 Kazakhstan 5,919 Increase 0.322
55 Moldova 5,897 Increase 0.959
56 Russia 5,856 Increase 0.738
57 Poland 5,835 Increase 0.098
58 South Korea 5,835 Increase 0.295
59 Bolivia 5,822 Increase 0.322
60 Lithuania 5,813 Decrease -0.069
61 Belarus 5,802 Increase 0.165
62 Northern Cyprus 5,771 Steady 0.000
63 Slovenia 5,768 Decrease -0.044
64 Peru 5,743 Increase 0.730
65 Turkmenistan 5,658 Steady 0.000
66 Mauritius 5,648 Steady 0.000
67 Libya 5,615 Steady 0.000
68 Latvia 5,560 Increase 0.872
69 Cyprus 5,546 Decrease -0.692
70 Paraguay 5,538 Increase 0.536
71 Romania 5,528 Increase 0.310
72 Estonia 5,517 Increase 0.165
73 Jamaica 5,510 Decrease -0.698
74 Croatia 5,488 Decrease -0.333
75 Hong Kong 5,458 Decrease -0.053
76 Somalia 5,440 Steady 0.000
77 Kosovo Kosovo 5,401 Increase 0.298
78 Turkey 5,389 Increase 0.216
79 Indonesia 5,314 Increase 0.295
80 Jordan 5,303 Decrease -0.638
81 Azerbaijan 5,291 Increase 0.642
82 Philippines 5,279 Increase 0.425
83 China 5,245 Increase 0.525
84 Bhutan 5,196 Steady 0.000
85 Kyrgyzstan 5,185 Increase 0.515
86 Serbia 5,177 Increase 0.426
87 Bosnia and Herzegovina 5,163 Increase 0.263
88 Montenegro 5,161 Decrease -0.035
89 Dominican Republic 5,155 Increase 0.070
90 Morocco 5,151 Steady 0.000
91 Hungary 5,145 Increase 0.070
92 Pakistan 5,132 Decrease -0.374
93 Lebanon 5,129 Increase 0.059
94 Portugal 5,123 Decrease -0.282
95 Macedonia 5,121 Increase 0.627
96 Vietnam 5,061 Decrease -0.299
97 Somaliland Somaliland region 5,057 Steady 0.000
98 Tunisia 5,045 Steady 0.000
99 Greece 5,033 Decrease -1.294
100 Tajikistan 4,996 Increase 0.474
101 Mongolia 4,907 Increase 0.298
102 Laos 4,876 Decrease -0.344
103 Nigeria 4,875 Increase 0.075
104 Honduras 4,871 Decrease -0.375
105 Iran 4,813 Decrease -0.507
106 Zambia 4,795 Increase 0.381
107 Nepal 4,793 Increase 0.135
108 State of Palestine Palestinian Territories 4,754 Increase 0.321
109 Albania 4,655 Increase 0.021
110 Bangladesh 4,643 Increase 0.170
111 Sierra Leone 4,635 Increase 1.028
112 Iraq 4,575 Steady 0.000
113 Namibia 4,574 Decrease -0.312
114 Cameroon 4,513 Increase 0.413
115 Ethiopia 4,508 Steady 0.000
116 South Africa 4,459 Decrease -0.686
117 Sri Lanka 4,415 Increase 0.037
118 India 4,404 Decrease -0.750
119 Myanmar 4,395 Steady 0.000
120 Egypt 4,362 Decrease -0.996
121 Armenia 4,360 Decrease -0.226
122 Kenya 4,356 Decrease -0.044
123 Ukraine 4,324 Decrease -0.701
124 Ghana 4,276 Decrease -0.600
125 Republic of the Congo 4,272 Steady 0.000
126 Georgia 4,252 Increase 0.561
127 Democratic Republic of the Congo 4,236 Steady 0.000
128 Senegal 4,219 Decrease -0.328
129 Bulgaria 4,217 Increase 0.373
130 Mauritania 4,201 Increase 0.052
131 Zimbabwe 4,193 Increase 0.639
132 Malawi 4,156 Decrease -0.205
133 Sudan 4,139 Steady 0.000
134 Gabon 4,121 Steady 0.000
135 Mali 4,073 Increase 0.059
136 Haiti 4,028 Increase 0.274
137 Botswana 3,974 Decrease -0.765
138 Comoros 3,956 Steady 0.000
139 Ivory Coast 3,916 Steady 0.000
140 Cambodia 3,907 Increase 0.045
141 Angola 3,866 Steady 0.000
142 Niger 3,856 Decrease -0.144
143 South Sudan 3,832 Steady 0.000
144 Chad 3,763 Decrease -0.025
145 Burkina Faso 3,739 Decrease -0.170
146 Uganda 3,739 Decrease -0.356
147 Yemen 3,724 Decrease -0.754
148 Madagascar 3,695 Decrease -0.285
149 Tanzania 3,666 Decrease -0.460
150 Liberia 3,622 Decrease -0.080
151 Guinea 3,607 Steady 0.000
152 Rwanda 3,515 Decrease -0.700
153 Benin 3,484 Increase 0.154
154 Afghanistan 3,360 Steady 0.000
155 Togo 3,303 Increase 0.100
156 Syria 3,069 Steady 0.000
157 Burundi 2,905 Steady 0.000