World Happiness Report: South Sudan and Sudan

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network released its annual World Happiness Report on 20 March, revealing the world’s happiest and least happy countries in 2019.

Finland has once again been ranked as the happiest country in the world, and South Sudan is ranked the least happy country in the world. 

South Sudan has been ravaged by civil war and epidemic hunger since its separation from Sudan in 2011. Despite the oil business giving the world’s youngest country hope, frequent political instability has influenced the results making it the least happy country in the world.  

Although Sudan has been witnessing economic and political instability which had led to months long widespread anti-government protests, Sudan is ranked at 113.

 In the World Happiness Report 2018, Sudan ranked at 137, meaning it’s a ‘happier’ country this year, ranking higher in this year’s report than last year. South Sudan ranked at 154 in the 2018 report, falling to the bottom of the list in this year’s report. 

The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. This year’s World 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.

Most of the countries in Africa and the Middle East are ranked low in ‘happiness’ in the report. ‘There are no significant trends in positive affect in Sub-Saharan Africa, while in the MENA, it starts lower and follows a declining trend,’ says the report. ‘The biggest increases in the frequency of negative affect are found in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the 2018 frequency greater by half than in 2010.’

According to the report, Mauritius is the happiest country in Africa, ranking the country at 57.

World’s happiest countries

World’s least happy countries