03/21/2017, 09.56
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The happiest countries in the world: Norway in first place, China ranked 79th despite economic growth

The ranking takes into account the gross domestic product per person, life expectancy, social welfare, freedom and perception of corruption. Well Australia and New Zealand, Cambodia is the saddest Asian country. Disappointment for India, to 122th place.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - According to a The World Happiness Report 2017, Norway is the happiest country on Earth. Americans are a bit 'more sad, the Chinese as happy as 25 years ago. The report shows that money is not everything for the people of the 155 countries studied.

The rankings are based on gross domestic product per person, healthy life expectancy with four factors from global surveys. In those surveys, people give scores from 1 to 10 on how much social support they feel they have if something goes wrong, their freedom to make their own life choices, their sense of how corrupt their society is and how generous they are.

In Asia, Singapore occupies the 26th place in the rankings; Thailand 32; Taiwan 33; Malaysia 42; Japan is in 51 st place; South Korea ranked 56th; the Philippines 72nd. Cambodia is the saddest Asian country, ranking in 129th position.

Overall, Hong Kong was ranked 71st in the world and China to 79th. The report finds that people in China are no happier than 25 years ago. This contrasts sharply with the growth of income per capita in the last 25 years. The evaluations on quality of life declined steadily from 1990 until 2005 and today approximately amounted to the levels of the '90s.

"China’s soaring GDP growth over the past quarter century is viewed by many analysts as the hallmark of a successful transition from socialism to capitalism,” the report said. “But if the welfare of the ‘common man’ is taken as a criterion of success, the picture is much less favourable and more like that of European transition countries.

The other Asian giant, India, is positioned only at 122th place, lower than Pakistan (80), Nepal (99th), Bangladesh (110) and even Iraq, which ranks 117th place.

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