The little red dot is the 25th happiest country in the world according to the 2023 World Happiness Report by the United Nations (UN), two spots higher than last year.
On a scale from 1 to 10, Singapore got a score of 6.587, which put it at the top of the list as Asia’s happiest country.
The survey, ranked more than 150 countries based on factors such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy and freedom to make life choices.
Finland clinched the top position as the happiest nation for the sixth year running, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand.
Read Also: Will 2023 Be The Right Time To Buy A Property In Singapore?
25th In The World; Happiest Country In Asia – How Was This Identified
At the 25th spot, Singapore is the happiest country in Asia, followed closely by Taiwan at number 27. Other Asian countries ranked include Kazakhstan (44), Japan (47), Malaysia (55), Korea (57), Thailand (60), Mongolia (61), China, (64), Vietnam (65), the Philippines (76), Indonesia (83) and India (126).
Top happiest countries in Asia:
- Singapore (25th)
- Taiwan Province of China (27th)
- Kazakhstan (44th)
- Japan (47th)
- Malaysia (55th)
- Republic of Korea (57th)
- Thailand (60th)
With general political stability, low crime rates, and excellent healthcare, education, housing, recreation and transport options, it is no doubt Singapore ranks high on the list.
Singapore was ranked 27th in the survey in 2022, and 32nd in 2021.
Image Credit: UN
The report, released on Mar 20, was derived using a global survey with a sample size of 2,000 to 3,000 people per country from more than 150 countries. By and large more than 100,000 people in 130 countries participate in the survey each year.
Happiness rankings this year were based on a three-year average of these “life evaluations” in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and around 1,000 responses were gathered annually for each country. This meant that the report effectively assesses the happiness level throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Survey information in 2022, however, was unavailable for a number of countries including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and China. The averages for these countries were based on data from 2020 and 2021.
“Life evaluations” such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perceptions of corruption and dystopia were the key factors to rank the countries.
Income: Indicators such as GDP per capita
Health: Life expectancy of individuals
Having a community to rely on: Social support indicators, asking respondents if they feel they have someone to turn to when in need
Freedom to make key life choices: How satisfied do respondents feel with their freedom to choose what to do with their lives
Generosity: Respondents’ history of donation to a charity
Absence of corruption: Respondents’ feelings on governmental and commercial corruption
Income: GDP Per Capita
Various studies have shown a person’s perception of happiness is associated with a country’s GDP, and this pattern has similarly been observed in Singapore.
In 2021, Singapore’s GDP per capita was at US$72,794 per capita, according to the World Bank. Worldwide GDP on the other hand, was about US$12,232 per capita.
GDP is measured by how much each country produces, divided by the number of people in the country. GDP per capita gives information about the size of the economy and how the economy is performing.
Singapore outperforms its peers partly due to low tax rates and a pro-business environment that attracts significant foreign direct investments.
Health: Life Expectancy Of Individuals
Those with more wealth, health, and status have more available resources for helping others. It may also reflect the positive link between objective and subjective well-being, however, as those experiencing poverty, poor health, or low status typically report lower well-being.
In Singapore, the people enjoy universal healthcare. This means that the public health system and mandatory health insurance is funded by the government. But public healthcare is still not free.
About 70% to 80% of Singaporeans obtain their medical care within the public health system.
Beyond life expectancy, there is also the exploration of physical and mental health. The UN report noted that mental health is a key component of subjective well-being and is also a risk factor for future physical health and longevity. Mental health influences and drives a number of individual choices, behaviours and outcomes.
Having A Community To Rely On
Do respondents feel they have someone to turn to when in need? This is another checker that the UN looks at when assessing a country’s happiness index.
A distinctive element of Singaporean society is that it is very diverse, especially considering the size of the city-state.
Singaporean society is largely made up of ethnic Chinese, Malays, and Indians. Singapore also attracts huge numbers of expats, with studies showing that approximately 40% of the total population are foreigners.
But there are less obvious face-to-face confrontation on race and religious issues, as compared with the country’s neighbours and overseas.
Having A Sense Of Freedom To Make Key Life Decisions
“Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”
Such questions create the discussion for respondents to decide on their sense of freedom in their country. These also includes human rights – inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.
Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights without discrimination.
There is no explanation of Singapore’s status on this aspect, but the country has one of the highest labour force participation rates for women. There is also a right to work and education for everyone in this country. Perhaps other not so strong factors would have to be lower points on freedom of opinion and expression on all subject matters.
Read Also: What’s The Median Salary In Singapore (At Every Age, Gender, Education and Race)
Generosity – Respondents’ History Of Donation To A Charity
“Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?”
Questions like this are used as a clear marker to understand if the respondents have a sense of positive community engagement.
Research shows that in all cultures, starting in early childhood, people are drawn to behaviours which benefit other people.
In Singapore’s context, because there are high levels of wealth and health, there is a natural association with higher levels of altruism because they lead to increased life satisfaction.
This is seen by Singapore giving generously in 2021 to charity despite the Covid-19 pandemic, providing record sums. Giving.sg received a record $95.5 million in donations, the largest sum collected since it was started by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in 2010.
The public has also given generously to groups affected by the pandemic, such as migrant workers.
Absence Of Corruption
Another checker was on respondents’ feelings on governmental and commercial corruption.
“Is corruption widespread throughout the government or not?” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses or not?”
“Do people trust their governments and have trust in the benevolence of others?”
In the report, the UN noted Singapore’s good example of its rule of law:
“The legal system has, of course, many functions.”
“It has to uphold human rights, adjudicate civil disputes and punish crime. On punishment, the well-being approach is clear. There are only three justifications for punishment: deterrence of future crime, protection of the public today, and rehabilitation of the offender.”
“There is no role for retribution. And the overriding aim has to be reintegration of the offender into society. For offenders in prison, this requires real effort, and the Singapore Prison Reform of 1998 provides a good example of prisoners, wardens and the community collaborating to enable prisoners to have better lives, in which they return to the institutions later as volunteers rather than prisoners.”
In a separate point, the UN identified how to build cohesive institutions:
- A good starting point for building cohesive institutions is a broad social consensus on the rules and limits to government power. These can be enshrined in written documents, such as constitutions. But they can also be sustained by tacit agreement on taking a long-term view, understanding that corruption or nepotism by incumbent policy-makers can have damaging long-term consequences.
Happiness Aside, How Then Do We Identify A Country With The World’s Most Unhappy People?
Those experiencing poverty, poor health, or low status typically report lower well-being and contribute to the country scoring lower in the happiness index.
For this, the UN ideated Dystopia, an imaginary country that has the world’s least-happy people.
The purpose of Dystopia is to have a benchmark against which all countries can be favourably compared (no country can perform worse than Dystopia) in terms of each of the six key variables.
The lowest scores observed for the six key variables above, therefore characterise Dystopia.
“Since life would be very unpleasant in a country with the world’s lowest incomes, lowest life expectancy, lowest generosity, most corruption, least freedom, and least social support, it is referred to as ‘Dystopia’, in contrast to Utopia,” the report stated.
War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey.
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Read Also: 4 Reasons Why Singapore Is The Most Expensive City In World
The post Singapore Is Ranked The 25th Happiest Country In The World, Here’s How We Got There (According To The United Nations) appeared first on DollarsAndSense.sg.
0 Mga Komento