World Happiness Report: Singapore number 2 in Asia, its citizens remain skeptical

Singapore – The recently released 7^th World Happiness Report revealed that Singapore was the second happiest Asian nation.

Finland topped the list of 156 countries ranked in this year’s report which was conducted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The Nordic country also took the top spot last year, showing high scores on well-being predictors such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption over the 2016-2018 period taken for the study.

According to the study, the six variables were used “to explain the variation of happiness across countries with scores based on an individual’s own assessments of their lives.”

Singapore is the 34^th nation on the list after Taiwan in Asia. South Sudan was at the bottom of the list.

The Happiness League Table is the first of its kind since 2012. “The numbers shown reflect each country’s global rank for the variable in question, with the number of countries ranked depending on the availability of data,” noted the report. Singapore ranked first among the rest in terms of an absence of corruption and healthy life expectancy and third for GDP per capita. In terms of social support, freedom, and generosity, Singapore ranked 36^th, 20^th, and 21^st, respectively.

The World Happiness Report also considered the “different ways in which the nature and equality of government policies and institutions can influence happiness.” The study focused on government institutions and their policies in specific areas that influence how highly the people rate the quality of their lives and overall happiness. The findings were included in the scores of the six variables as the government directly or indirectly affects each one.

Singaporeans are not pleased and are expressing their doubts about the accuracy of the report.

Netizen Joshua Alexis asked who was in charge of conducting the study while others are wondering on the metrics such as sample size and markers.

Many comments focused on the validity of the report and tagged it as fake news while others are noting on the coming time of the year where jokes are tantamount to tradition.

Freddy Chin garnered many likes for his statement on happiness.

Meanwhile, a certain Joseph Ng Chin Boon commented on how he became happier in Singapore after coming from Malaysia.