India among unhappiest countries in the world, according to Happiness Report

In the South Asian region, the country fares better than Nepal (121st rank), Myanmar (129th), Sri Lanka (132nd) and Afghanistan (153rd).

People from countries as diverse as Bhutan and Pakistan are much happier than Indians, according to the World Happiness Report 2015 released on Friday. In fact, India is one of the unhappiest countries in the world. It ranks 117 out of the 158 countries surveyed for the report.

In the South Asian region, the country fares better than Nepal (121st rank), Myanmar (129th), Sri Lanka (132nd) and Afghanistan (153rd).

The study considers six variables—per capita gross domestic product (GDP), healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and the absence of corruption—to reach the score given on a scale 0 to 10, where 0 represents the worst possible life. The top country in the list is Switzerland with a score of 7.587; India is at 4.565.

Women have higher life evaluations than men in five of the eight global regions, including South Asia, but the freedom to make life choices for them is the lowest in South Asia.

Also, the incidence of happiness is about 80% for younger age groups, but falls fairly steadily to about 60% at the older end of the age spectrum in South Asia. Then again, while women enjoy themselves more when they are below the age of 40, men have an enjoyment advantage at ages above 50, according to the report.

Reported anger is significantly higher in the Middle East and North Africa at about 35%. The next highest incidence of anger is in South Asia, at an average rate of about 25% for both men and women. Worry rises steadily moving across age groups both among men and women in South Asia, being about 20% in the youngest groups and 40% in the oldest groups.

The average social support is much higher in East Asia, followed by South-East Asia, and then South Asia, which has the lowest average (58%) of all regional social support levels.

The report was published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Corruption in business and government is seen as a problem by more than 80% of the global respondents. For South Asia, the figure is 85%.

The patterns of reported health problems are strikingly similar by age and gender across regions. In all regions, except Western Europe, women report health problems more frequently than men in most age groups.

Of the six key variables, household incomes (measured in terms of purchasing power parity) have by far the largest differences among global regions. Reported average annual household incomes are the highest in Western Europe at over $40,000. In South Asia, it’s about $5,000 per household.