World Happiness Report
The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll collected from people in over 150 countries
The rankings of national happiness are based on a Cantril ladder survey. Nationally representative samples of respondents are asked to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The report correlates the results with various life factors. Each variable measured reveals a populated-weighted average score on a scale running from 0 to 10 that is tracked over time and compared against other countries.
These variables currently include:
- Real GDP Per Capita
- Social Suport
- Healthy Life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- Perceptions of corruption
The data for each year corresponds to the previous 2 years.
The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles, and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll collected from people in over 150 countries
The rankings of national happiness are based on a Cantril ladder survey. Nationally representative samples of respondents are asked to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The report correlates the results with various life factors. Each variable measured reveals a populated-weighted average score on a scale running from 0 to 10 that is tracked over time and compared against other countries.
These variables currently include:
- Real GDP Per Capita
- Social Suport
- Healthy Life expectancy
- Freedom to make life choices
- Generosity
- Perceptions of corruption
The data for each year corresponds to the previous 2 years.
SUBJECT Variables
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The scoring for each year corresponds to the survey findings in the 2 preceding years.
- India scored 4.05, equating to 40.5 percentage points on the World Happiness Report 2024, moving marginally higher from 40.4 percentage points a year ago.
- India was ranked 126 amongst the 146 countries assessed in the 2024 report.
COMPONENTS
The six key variables contribute to explaining life evaluations. The scores are based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, as revealed by their answers to the single-item Cantril ladder life-evaluation question.
- GDP per capita is in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted to constant 2017 international dollars.
- Social support is the national average to the Gallup World Poll (GWP) question “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”
- The time series for healthy life expectancy at birth is constructed based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Freedom to make life choices is the national average to the GWP question “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”
- Generosity is the residual of regressing the national average of GWP responses to the donation question “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?” on log GDP per capita.
- Perceptions of corruption are the average of binary answers to two GWP questions: “Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country or not?” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses in this country or not?”
- The value for Dystopia (1.83) is the predicted Cantril ladder for a hypothetical country with the world’s lowest values for each of the six variables. This permits the calculated contributions from the six factors to be zero or positive for every actual country.
- The contribution of 'Freedom to make life choices' to India's overall score in 2024 has increased significantly while 'Generosity' and 'Perceptions of Corruption' continue to weigh heavily on the overall score.
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