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Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2022

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Check out the latest update of the World Happiness Report.

World Happiness Levels 2022

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Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2022

Check out the latest update of the World Happiness Report.

What really makes people happy? While countless academic researchers have tried to get to the bottom of this, the truth is, it’s a complicated question to answer.

Happiness levels depend on a number of factors, including one’s financial security, perceptions of social support, feelings of personal freedom, and much more.

This map pulls data from the World Happiness Report to uncover the average happiness scores of 146 countries. It shows average scores from 2019 to 2021, and highlights which countries are the happiest—or unhappiest—and why.

How is Happiness Measured?

Before diving in, let’s briefly touch on how happiness levels are measured in this report.

The numbers shown represent the survey data from thousands of respondents for each country, who are asked to rate their subjective well-being (happiness score) using the Cantril life ladder question. For more information on the methodology of this and technical notes, go here.

The report also does a regression analysis to look at how happiness scores could be explained, by looking at tangible and intangible factors that could factor in:

  • Social support
  • Life expectancy
  • Freedom to make life choices
  • Generosity
  • GDP per capita
  • Perceptions of corruption
  • Positive and negative affects

Similar to last year, the report takes special considerations to track how COVID-19 has impacted aspects of our daily lives, and how it’s affected global happiness levels.

Editor’s note: there are several countries covered in last year’s report that were not included in this year’s dataset, including Haiti, Maldives, and Burundi.

Zooming in: Regional Happiness Levels

Worldwide happiness comes in at an average score of 5.6, which is a slight improvement since last year’s report. Below, we dive into each region’s happiness levels.

North America

Current Mood: Happy (6.3)

Like last year, Canada ranks first as the happiest country in North America. However, it’s lost some ground on the global ranking, placing 15th this year compared to 14th the year prior. In contrast, the U.S. climbed three places in this year’s report and ranked just under Canada with a score of 6.97 (7.0 after rounding).

regional map measuring happiness levels in north america in 2022

The Dominican Republic comes in last place in the region. While the Dominican Republic has experienced impressive economic growth over the last 25 years, the country was hit hard by the global pandemic—in 2020, approximately 270,000 people fell into poverty, and the economy is still struggling to reach its pre-pandemic levels.

South America

Current Mood: Content (5.8)

Uruguay retains its top spot as the happiest country in South America. It continues to rank high on the list because of its high income per capita, relatively low levels of poverty, and strong middle class.

While Uruguay was not immune to the impacts of COVID-19, the country was able to transition smoothly to online learning and was the first country in the region to reopen schools.

regional map measuring happiness levels in south america in 2022
In last year’s World Happiness Report, Colombia was the most improved country in the region. But this year, it’s dropped 14 places on the global ranking, making it the least improved country in this year’s report.

While Colombia has made significant strides towards elevating extreme poverty in the last few decades, it still has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Latin America. In 2020, its top 10% of workers took home more than 50% of national income.

Europe

Current Mood: Happy (6.5)

Finland is not only the happiest country in Europe, but it also takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, for the fifth year in a row. Finland is one of five Nordic countries to place in the top 10. Denmark comes in second place, followed by Iceland in third.

regional map measuring happiness levels in europe in 2022

Romania was the most improved country in Europe, climbing 18 spots on the global ranking since last year’s report. Over the last decade, the country has seen some of the most significant economic growth in the European Union and was able to bounce back quickly from its COVID-19- triggered slump.

Ukraine ranks in last place, making it the unhappiest country in Europe. Ukraine has experienced ongoing challenges since the Maidan Uprising peaked in 2014. Events in the country have recently taken a turn for the worse, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. As a result of the conflict, over 3 million people have fled the country.

Middle East and Central Asia

Current Mood: It’s Complicated (5.2)

Turkmenistan is the most improved country in the region, rising 19 places on the global ranking since last year’s report. The country’s boost could be explained by its rapid economic growth in recent years. In 2021, the country’s GDP grew by an estimated 6.3%.

regional map measuring happiness levels in middle east in 2022

For the last two years, Lebanon has been dealing with a slew of crises. In 2020, COVID-19 spurred an economic crisis that’s been ranked as one of the top 10 most severe economic crises since the mid-nineteenth century. And on August 4th, 2020, a massive ammonium nitrate explosion left the country’s capital city, Beirut, in shambles.

East Asia and Oceania

Current Mood: Neutral (5.6)

Note: As the report only covers 146 countries, “Oceania” only refers to Australia and New Zealand in this instance.

In this year’s report, China climbed 12 places on the global ranking, making it the most improved country in East Asia and Oceania. The Chinese government recently identified “common prosperity” as a top priority, and has made numerous policy shifts in an effort to combat inequality and eradicate poverty.

regional map measuring happiness levels in east asia in 2022
On the flipside, Thailand has improved the least in the region, likely because of the significant toll that COVID-19 had on the country’s economy. In 2020, economic growth shrunk by 6.1% in Thailand—the country’s worst contraction since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Thailand’s economy is not expected to bounce back to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.

Africa

Current Mood: Unhappy (4.5)

With a regional score of 4.5, Africa ranks as the unhappiest region worldwide. Zimbabwe remains the most unhappy country in the region, as it continues to struggle with high levels of poverty. In 2021, approximately 6.1 million people were living below the international poverty line.

regional map measuring happiness levels in Africa in 2022
Mauritius remains the happiest country in the region, likely because of its relatively high levels of income. It’s worth noting that Mauritius became a High-Income country in July 2020, but slipped back to its Upper-Middle-Income status in 2021 because of the global pandemic.

We’re into our third year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s clear that countries worldwide are still reeling from the pandemic’s devastating health, social, and economic impact. It’s unclear when things will fully return to normal—if ever. But on the bright side, countries are slowly showing signs of recovery.

Editor’s note: We’ve adjusted the “How is Happiness Measured” portion of this article to better reflect the methodology used in the World Happiness Report

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Misc

Mapped: Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

We visualize Asia’s population patterns to see where 4.6 billion people, or two-thirds of the world’s population, actually live.

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A cropped map of Asia's population patterns, visualizing where people actually live.

A Map of Asia’s Population Patterns by Density

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Nearly 60% of the world’s 8 billion population lives in Asia: a vast continent sprawling over 44 million km², home to sprawling megacities, high-altitude deserts, the world’s biggest plateau, and impenetrable rainforests.

We visualize Asia’s population patterns using data from WorldPop—a research group based out of the University of Southampton that tracks population growth and movement across the globe.

A spike on the map denotes higher population density.

Other figures in this article are sourced from World Population Review (population numbers) and the World Bank (area).

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population

Immediately the map visualizes at impressive scale a rather well-known fact: that India and China together account for 35% of the world’s population just by themselves.

Pakistan (ranked 4th in population) and Bangladesh (ranked 5th) together account for another 400 million people.

The role of the Himalayas in this distribution is understated: the mountain range is a source of ten major rivers, flowing to India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China, providing fresh water to 1.3 billion people in its watershed.

RankCountryPopulationArea
1🇮🇳 India1,437,982,6613,287,260 km²
2🇨🇳 China1,425,317,7209,562,910 km²
3🇮🇩 Indonesia279,119,6261,916,907 km²
4🇵🇰 Pakistan243,772,596796,100 km²
5🇧🇩 Bangladesh174,173,808147,570 km²
6🇷🇺 Russia144,101,44917,098,250 km²
7🇯🇵 Japan122,833,540377,974 km²
8🇵🇭 Philippines119,106,224300,000 km²
9🇻🇳 Vietnam99,308,524331,340 km²
10🇮🇷 Iran89,626,6611,745,150 km²
11🇹🇷 Turkey86,127,389785,350 km²
12🇹🇭 Thailand71,863,281513,120 km²
13🇲🇲 Myanmar54,849,472676,590 km²
14🇰🇷 South Korea51,756,284100,430 km²
15🇮🇶 Iraq46,225,266435,050 km²
16🇦🇫 Afghanistan43,026,322652,860 km²
17🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia37,473,9292,149,690 km²
18🇺🇿 Uzbekistan35,522,965448,924 km²
19🇾🇪 Yemen34,982,136555,000 km²
20🇲🇾 Malaysia34,562,556330,411 km²
21🇳🇵 Nepal31,136,781147,180 km²
22🇰🇵 North Korea26,220,850120,540 km²
23🇸🇾 Syria24,010,759185,180 km²
24🇹🇼 Taiwan23,942,52236,197 km²
25🇱🇰 Sri Lanka21,933,15565,610 km²
26🇰🇿 Kazakhstan19,764,1582,724,900 km²
27🇰🇭 Cambodia17,071,236181,040 km²
28🇯🇴 Jordan11,368,89889,318 km²
29🇦🇿 Azerbaijan10,448,63686,600 km²
30🇹🇯 Tajikistan10,277,238141,379 km²
31🇦🇪 UAE9,569,30098,648 km²
32🇮🇱 Israel9,272,22822,070 km²
33🇱🇦 Laos7,736,681236,800 km²
34🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan6,807,948199,950 km²
35🇹🇲 Turkmenistan6,573,631488,100 km²
36🇸🇬 Singapore6,119,203728 km²
37🇵🇸 Palestine5,494,9636,025 km²
38🇱🇧 Lebanon5,257,50110,450 km²
39🇴🇲 Oman4,692,824309,500 km²
40🇰🇼 Kuwait4,337,70317,820 km²
41🇬🇪 Georgia3,720,47769,700 km²
42🇲🇳 Mongolia3,480,0401,564,116 km²
43🇦🇲 Armenia2,777,97929,743 km²
44🇶🇦 Qatar2,730,86411,490 km²
45🇧🇭 Bahrain1,494,745790 km²
46🇹🇱 Timor-Leste1,374,02514,870 km²
47🇨🇾 Cyprus1,260,1389,250 km²
48🇧🇹 Bhutan790,91838,390 km²
49🇲🇻 Maldives518,765300 km²
50🇧🇳 Brunei454,8695,770 km²

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Other countries that are covered by red: Indonesia (ranked 4th in population), Japan (ranked 7th), and the Philippines (8th), are all some of Asia’s most populous countries.

They also have some of the world’s densest cities:

  • Manila: 42,857 people/km²
  • Mumbai: 28,195 people/km²
  • Karachi: 24,000 people/km²
  • Jakarta: 14,464 people/km²

Tokyo and Beijing—despite being some of the world’s largest cities by population—record lower densities in comparison, helped by their much larger administrative areas.

But when sorted by average population density across the entire country, the ranks look a little bit different.

Ranked: Asia’s Countries By Population Density

The city state of Singapore is the densest country in Asia, with more than 8,000 people/km². Far behind it, the similarly sized in area Bahrain has one-sixth the population and ranks second (1,892/km²) in Asia’s densest countries.

RankCountryPopulation Density
1🇸🇬 Singapore8,405 people/km2
2🇧🇭 Bahrain1,892 people/km2
3🇲🇻 Maldives1,729 people/km2
4🇧🇩 Bangladesh1,180 people/km2
5🇵🇸 Palestine912 people/km2
6🇹🇼 Taiwan661 people/km2
7🇰🇷 South Korea515 people/km2
8🇱🇧 Lebanon503 people/km2
9🇮🇳 India437 people/km2
10🇮🇱 Israel420 people/km2
11🇵🇭 Philippines397 people/km2
12🇱🇰 Sri Lanka334 people/km2
13🇯🇵 Japan325 people/km2
14🇵🇰 Pakistan306 people/km2
15🇻🇳 Vietnam300 people/km2
16🇰🇼 Kuwait243 people/km2
17🇶🇦 Qatar238 people/km2
18🇰🇵 North Korea218 people/km2
19🇳🇵 Nepal212 people/km2
20🇨🇳 China149 people/km2
21🇮🇩 Indonesia146 people/km2
22🇹🇭 Thailand140 people/km2
23🇨🇾 Cyprus136 people/km2
24🇸🇾 Syria130 people/km2
25🇯🇴 Jordan127 people/km2
26🇦🇿 Azerbaijan120 people/km2
27🇹🇷 Turkey110 people/km2
28🇮🇶 Iraq106 people/km2
29🇲🇾 Malaysia105 people/km2
30🇦🇪 UAE97 people/km2
31🇦🇲 Armenia94 people/km2
32🇰🇭 Cambodia94 people/km2
33🇹🇱 Timor-Leste92 people/km2
34🇲🇲 Myanmar81 people/km2
35🇧🇳 Brunei79 people/km2
36🇺🇿 Uzbekistan79 people/km2
37🇹🇯 Tajikistan73 people/km2
38🇦🇫 Afghanistan66 people/km2
39🇾🇪 Yemen63 people/km2
40🇬🇪 Georgia54 people/km2
41🇮🇷 Iran51 people/km2
42🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan34 people/km2
43🇱🇦 Laos33 people/km2
44🇧🇹 Bhutan21 people/km2
45🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia17 people/km2
46🇴🇲 Oman15 people/km2
47🇹🇲 Turkmenistan13 people/km2
48🇷🇺 Russia8 people/km2
49🇰🇿 Kazakhstan7 people/km2
50🇲🇳 Mongolia2 people/km2

Note: Russia and Georgia are typically regarded as European countries for cultural reasons, despite their geographic locations. They have been included in the dataset for context only.

Bangladesh, with 1,180 people/km², has the rare distinction of being a top five Asian country by both population and average population density.

Meanwhile, India is 9th in population density (437 people/km²), its large landmass bringing down the average considerably.

Similarly, China nearly breaks into the top 20 with a population density of 149 people/km². Despite its vast population, the country’s immense size presents a challenge, particularly in its western regions, which are largely inhospitable to substantial human settlement due to the presence of mountains, the Tibetan plateau, and two deserts.

At the bottom of the rankings, Mongolia (2 people/km²) and Kazakhstan (7 people/km²) are some of the least dense countries in the world.

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