Egypt sees large decline in happiness levels says World Happiness report

Egypt ranks among the 10 countries with the largest decline in how happy citizens perceive themselves to be, according to the fourth World Happiness report, released this week ahead of International Day of Happiness on March 20.

Egypt is ranked 120 out of a list of 157 countries, while Denmark secured the top spot, followed by Switzerland, with the bottom two spots occupied by Syria and Burundi respectively.

The study measures "happiness" in countries based on individual life evaluations, with scores for each nation based on averages from surveys conducted in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

The countries that experienced the largest declines in average life evaluations, of which Egypt was one, are those that suffered some combination of economic, political and social stresses, the study said.

These countries are Greece, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, India, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Botswana.

Individual life evaluations are measured by answers to the Cantril ladder question: “Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?”

The report also measures six main variables, which it says contribute to the national annual average scores, including the country’s GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

It also shows that “measures of experienced well-being, especially positive emotions, can add to life circumstances in the support for higher life evaluations.”

The study measured “inequality of well-being” for the first time, arguing it is more significant when it comes to measuring the distribution of welfare than income and wealth, “which have thus far held center stage when the levels and trends of inequality are being considered.”

“People do care about the happiness of others, and how it is distributed,” the report reads, “Beyond the six factors already discussed, new research suggests that people are significantly happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness.”

The report also found that in most countries happiness inequality has increased significantly.

The study was conducted by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a group of scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society, and the private sector, mobilized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012 to support practical problem solving for sustainable development on local, national and global scales.