World Happiness Report 2019

What is the World Happiness Report?

The World Happiness Report (WHR) 2019, which ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be, according to their evaluations of their own lives, analyzes how life evaluations and emotions, both positive and negative, have evolved over the whole run of the Gallup World Poll, starting in 2005-2006. For life evaluations at the national level, there have been more gainers than losers.

The report is produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) with the support of the Ernesto Illy Foundation, is edited by Professor John F. Helliwell of the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; Professor Richard Layard, co-director of the Well-Being Program at LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance; and Professor Sachs, director of SDSN and the Earth Institute’s Center on Sustainable Development. Policy applications of happiness research are collected in a companion SDSN publication Global Happiness Policy Report 2019.

WHR 2019

This year’s happiness report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes. There is also specific focus on generosity and prosocial behavior, the effects of happiness on voting behavior, big data, the happiness effects of internet use and addictions.

Professor John Helliwell, co-editor of the report says, “The world is a rapidly changing place, how communities interact with each other whether in schools, workplaces, neighborhoods or on social media has profound effects on world happiness.”