Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Happiness Index: East Africa and the Horn

The World Happiness Report 2015 edited by John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs has just been released.  Switzerland ranks as the happiest country.  The United States is number 15.  The report looks at the following six factors, which tend to favor high rankings for Western countries: GDP per capita, healthy years of life expectancy, social support, perceived absence of corruption, perceived freedom to make life decisions, and recent donations.

Of the 158 countries evaluated, most of those in Africa scored low.  In East Africa and the Horn, Somaliland scored best at 91, followed by Sudan at 118, Ethiopia at 122, Kenya at 125, Djibouti at 126, Uganda at 141, and Tanzania at 146.  There was no rating for Somalia, South Sudan or Eritrea.