For the 10th year in a row, Switzerland’s population ranks among the most content by the World Happiness Report, a publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network that draws on global survey data from people in about 150 countries.
In the just-released 2022 edition, Switzerland is ranked fourth globally, just below three Scandinavian nations: Finland (1), Denmark (2), and Iceland (3). Sweden and Norway are in the seventh and eighth place, respectively.
Switzerland’s neighbours, however, didn’t even make it to the top-10. Austria is in the 11th position, Germany in the 14th, France in the 20th, and Italy in the 28th.
Why is Switzerland rated so highly?
Clearly, happiness and well-being are subjective terms, inherent to each individual, and as such they can’t be measured scientifically.
“Our measurement of subjective well-being continues to rely on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions”, the report said. “Happiness rankings are based on life evaluations as the more stable measure of the quality of people’s lives”.
Researchers used seven categories to assess each country’s contentment level: Dystopia (evaluating how much better life is in a given country in comparison to ones with bad living conditions); perception of corruption in a country; generosity; freedom to make life choices; healthy life expectancy; social support; and GDP per capita.
Switzerland ranks especially well — (better than higher-ranked Finland, Denmark and Iceland) in terms of its GDP, and also in regards to how respondents view their overall quality of life and living conditions when with compared with other nations.
The “social support" category is also highly rated by survey participants, as is healthy life expectancy and freedom to make choices.
It fares less well, however, in the generosity category (as do most countries) and perception of corruption.
Switzerland is no stranger to high scores (both positive and negative) in various international rankings, ranging from quality of life and competitiveness, to cost of living.
You can find more about those topics here:
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