Venezuela ranks least happiest country in South America in new U.N. study

Finland was named the world’s happiest country for the sixth year in a row, according to a new report released on Monday identifying the world’s happiest nations. 

The World Happiness Report, published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, surveys people in more than 150 countries to identify the happiest nations and those that are not so happy. 

Eight out of the top ten happiest places are in Europe: Finland ranked first place with a score of 7.8 out of 10 rankings high on healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, and generosity. Following closely behind is Denmark in second place with a score of 7.6, third is Iceland with a score of 7.5, and fifth is the Netherlands with 7.4

North America had an average happiness score of 6.3, with Canada being the happiest country in the region. Canada ranked number 13 on the overall list and the United States came in at number 15. South America’s average score was 5.8, with Venezuela being the continent’s least happy country.

At the very bottom of the list was war-torn Afghanistan at number 137, followed by Lebanon at 136 and Sierra Leone at 135. 

"Average happiness and our country rankings, for emotions as well as life evaluations, have been remarkably stable during the three Covid years," said John Helliwell, Canadian economist and editor of the report.

"Even during these difficult years, positive emotions have remained twice as prevalent as negative ones, and feelings of positive social support twice as strong as those of loneliness."

The report also found that benevolence around the world has increased by about 25% since before the pandemic. 

“Benevolence to others, especially the helping of strangers, which went up dramatically in 2021, stayed high in 2022,”  Helliwell told CNN.