Africa and the 2026 World Happiness Report

 Gallup just released its "World Happiness Report 2026" that assesses 147 countries from 2023 through 2025.  The 2026 edition highlights the role social media plays in social connection, trust, and shared experiences worldwide.

The happiest African countries based on the social media focus were Mauritius (73), Libya (81), Algeria (83), Mozambique (93), and Gabon (96).  The least happy African countries were DRC (140), Botswana (143), Zimbabwe (144), Malawi (145), and Sierra Leone (146).

Comment:  There are surprises, at least for me, at both ends of the scale.  The focus on social media probably accounts for them

Africa and World Happiness Report

 The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford published the World Happiness Report 2025.  The focus of this year's report is the impact of caring and sharing on people's happiness.  It includes factors such as giving money to charity, volunteering, and helping strangers.  It tries to measure the degree of benevolence in each of the 147 countries that it evaluates.  

The five highest ranked African countries are Mauritius (78), Libya (79), Algeria (84), South Africa (95), and Mozambique (96). Seven of the ten lowest ranked countries are in Africa: Lesotho (138), Comoros (139), DRC (141), Botswana (142), Zimbabwe (143), Malawi (144), and Sierra Leone (146).

Africa and World Happiness Report 2024

 The massive World Happiness Report 2024 is now available online, published in partnership with Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the World Happiness Report's editorial board.  The six key variables in the study are GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.  

The overall global happiness 2021-2023 scores are based on individuals' own assessments of their lives, in particular their answers to the Cantril ladder life-evaluation question in the Gallup World Poll. They are not based on any index of the six key variables in the study.  See pages 14-17 of the report. 

Out of 143 countries in the study, the five highest ranked African countries are war-torn Libya (66)!!, Mauritius (70), South Africa (83), Algeria (85), and Congo Brazzaville (89).  The five lowest ranked African countries are Lesotho (141), Sierra Leone (140), Congo Kinshasa (139), Zimbabwe (138), and Botswana (137).  For purposes of comparison, the United States ranked 23 and China 60.

Africa and the World Happiness Report 2022

 The World Happiness Report 2022 has just been published.  The country rankings of happiness are based on a three-year average from 2019 through 2021 for 146 countries globally, including 39 in Africa.  The study uses six variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. 

The highest scoring African country was Mauritius at number 52.  Eight African countries held positions in the bottom ten: Zambia (137), Malawi (138), Tanzania (139), Sierra Leone (140), Lesotho (141), Botswana (142), Rwanda (143), and Zimbabwe (144).  

Africa and the 2021 World Happiness Report

The World Happiness Report 2021 has just been released, which includes a ranking of happiness covering the years 2018-2020.  The focus of the report is a measurement of subjective well-being, which relies on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions.

The report gives the highest ranking to Finland.  The United States ranks in position number 19.  The highest scoring African country is Mauritius in position 50, followed by Libya at 80, and Republic of Congo at 83.  Seven of the ten lowest ranked countries are in Africa: Burundi (140), Tanzania (142), Malawi (144), Lesotho (145), Botswana (146), Rwanda (147), and Zimbabwe (148).

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.

Africa and the World Happiness Report 2018

World Happiness Report 2018 is now available. It ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels as measured by GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and corruption.

The best performers in Africa are Mauritius (55 globally), Libya (70), Algeria (84), Morocco (85), and Nigeria (91). The worst performers in Africa are Burundi (156), Central African Republic (155), South Sudan (154), Tanzania (153), and Rwanda (151). There are many surprises throughout the ranking.

2018 World Happiness Report: East Africa and Horn

The 2018 World Happiness Report has just been released. It evaluates 156 countries based on the pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys from 2015-2017. The key variables are income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity.

East Africa and the Horn do not score well. The best performer at number 98 is Somalia! Go figure. Kenya comes in at number 124, Ethiopia at 127, Uganda at 135, Sudan at 137, Tanzania at 153, and South Sudan at 154. Eritrea is not ranked.

Africa and the World Happiness Report

The Sustainable Development Solutions Network has posted online its World Happiness Report 2017. It contains a chapter titled "'Waiting for Happiness' in Africa" by Valerie Moller, Benjamin J. Roberts, Habib Tiliouine, and Jay Loschky. Many factors are used to rank countries in the happiness report.

The report includes 44 African countries where there are many surprises. The happiest African country is Algeria followed by Mauritius, Libya, Morocco and Somalia. The bottom five African countries are Togo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Central African Republic. In the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia ranked number 18, Sudan number 24, and South Sudan number 37. Eritrea and Djibouti were not included in the study.

The report ranked 155 countries worldwide. Algeria, the happiest African country, ranked number 53 on the global index. Eight out of ten of the lowest ranking countries globally are in Africa.

World Happiness Report: East Africa and the Horn

The annual World Happiness Report for 2016 has just been released.  It ranks 156 countries (and Somaliland region) by their happiness levels.  Leading experts in economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, health, public policy and other fields describe how measurements of well-being can be used effectively to assess the progress of nations.  The happiest nation in 2016 is Denmark.  The United States ranks number 13.  The least happy nation is Burundi.

East Africa and the Horn provide some surprises.  The happiest nation in the region is Somalia at number 77 followed by Somaliland region at number 97.  They are followed by Ethiopia (115), Kenya (122), Sudan (133), South Sudan (143), Uganda (146), and Tanzania (149).  Eritrea and Djibouti are not included in the ranking.