The UN General Assembly in 2012 decided that March 20 should be designated as World Happiness Day because of the fact that human beings strive for well-being and dream of happiness. It is recommended that countries celebrate this day with appropriate education and enlightenment programs and March 20 is a symbol of equality and happiness for all people in the world.

The UN Committee on Sustainable Development’s annual World Happiness Report was released on Thursday (March 18, 2021). In this report, Mongolia is ranked 70th out of 149 countries in the world with a happiness index of 5.6.

Finland was re-named the happiest country in the world with 7.8 points, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The country with the most progress is Croatia, which was ranked 79th in the previous list, but this time it is ranked 23rd and moved up 56 places. The United States slipped from 14th to 18th and the United Kingdom dropped from 13th to 18th. The unhappy countries in the world are India, Burundi, Yemen, Tanzania, Haiti, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan.

The report measures a country’s level of happiness based on a number of indicators, including life expectancy, social welfare, level of corruption, GDP per capita, civil liberties, job security, level of corruption, and the results of public opinion polls.

The Happiness Index is based on quality of life, positive and negative emotions, and quality of life is the level at which a basic need for a healthy, sustainable life is met on a daily basis. Researchers point out that this year’s report was largely influenced by the pandemic and other adverse changes.