PEOPLE IN IRELAND are happier than those in the UK, Germany, France and the US.

That’s according to the World Happiness Report 2018 which put Ireland in 14th place out of 156 countries.

Ireland has had a 4.1 year increase in its health-adjusted life expectancy since 2000. Life expectancy has gone from 67.4 years in 2000 to 71.5 years in 2015.

The UN report noted that the average life evaluation in the top 10 countries are more than twice as high as in the bottom 10.

The Nordic nations are the happiest in the world, with Finland coming out on top.

The top 10 were the same as last year, but in a different order, Norway took the top spot last year with Finland coming in at 4th.

The top 10 countries are Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia.

Unhappy countries

The report seeks to explain how America – which was once towards the top of the table – has now slipped to 18th place despite having one of the highest incomes per capita.

Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York, and one of the report’s authors, Jeffrey Sachs, said:

The US is suffering from three serious epidemics: obesity, substance abuse and depression … each could be ameliorated through public policies that would contribute immeasurably to the US well-being.

The least happy country is Burundi, followed by Central African Republic. Both these countries were at the bottom of the list last year, but in opposite order.

African countries got the worst happiness score, however Togo rose 18 places to 139th this year after coming bottom in 2015.

The report was produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

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