According to the latest World Happiness Report, conducted by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Kazakhstan placed 33rd among 147 surveyed countries, climbing 10 notches from last year and marking its best result to date.
The ranking is topped by Finland for the ninth consecutive year, followed by other Nordic countries — Iceland in second place and Denmark in third. The top ten then includes Costa Rica (4th), Sweden (5th), Norway (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Israel (8th), Luxembourg (9th) and Switzerland (10th). The authors of the report noted that Costa Rica achieved the highest result for a Latin American nation. The least happy nation was Afghanistan.
Kazakhstan emerged as the happiest country in Central Asia, outperforming Uzbekistan (53rd), Kyrgyzstan (66th), Tajikistan (88th), as well as neighboring Russia (79th).
The ranking is based on a three-year average of Gallup World Poll data using the ‘Cantril Ladder,’ where respondents rate their lives on a 0-10 scale. The final standings reflect these averages, with six factors taken into consideration, including GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
