The World Happiness Report 2013, created by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN), aims to bring the concept of happiness into the debate about the objectives of public policy.

To create the rankings, the researchers collected data on people’s perspectives on their lives and their emotions.  In evaluating their emotions, data included measures of positive emotions, measures of negative emotions, and general evaluations of their lives as a whole.  The measures of positive and negative emotions generally focused on the day prior to the day in which the study took place.  Life evaluations used the Cantril ladder of life, life evaluation, and happiness with life as a whole.  The researchers aimed to consider happiness both as an emotion and as a component of evaluating one’s life as a whole.

According to USA Today, 156 countries were evaluated for the report.  The top five happiest countries were all located in Europe and were dominated by Scandinavian countries.  Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden, respectively, took the top five slots.  Canada just missed the bracket, ranking sixth.  The U.S. came in at 17, showing that Americans were less happy than in the previous World Happiness Report, where they ranked 11^th.  Lost points in the U.S. were attributed to perceived declines in the freedom of choice and a mediocre life expectancy compared to other developed nations.

In general, the world showed slightly higher levels of happiness.  The first round of data was collected between 2005 and 2011.  This report had data collected between 2010 and 2012.  In countries that dealt with political or economic upheaval, researchers saw the greatest decline in happiness.  These countries included Greece, Italy, and Egypt.  The greatest improvements in overall happiness were seen in sub-Saharan and in Latin America.

The UNSDSN website reports that the goal of this report is to push policy makers to include happiness as a target and measure of development.  Publication of the report comes just two weeks before the U.N. General Assembly meets, strengthening the case that world leaders should consider happiness and well-being as a component for measuring social and economic development.  Researchers also identified six key variables that explained 75 percent of the variation in happiness: real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, having someone to rely on, and generosity.  This year’s report also identified mental health and lack of mental health care as a key barrier to well-being.