Saturday, July 13, 2019

Africa and the World Happiness Report 2019

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network published in March 2019 the 2019 edition of the "World Happiness Report" edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs. Factors considered in the rankings are GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perception of corruption.

The 2019 report ranked 156 countries, 45 in Africa. The best ranked African countries were Mauritius (57), Libya (72), Nigeria (85), Algeria (88), and Morocco (89). The poorest ranked African countries were South Sudan (156), Central African Republic (155), Tanzania (153), Rwanda (152), and Malawi (150). Some of the rankings are counter intuitive. Who would have thought Libya is the second best rated African country or that Tanzania and Rwanda are near the bottom. It is important, however, to consider the factors used to construct the index.