Denmark world's happiest country; Indians are unhappier than Pakistanis, Bangladeshis

India ranked below nations like Somalia (76), China (83), Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).

Zee Media Bureau

Denmark, closely followed by Switzerland, is again the happiest country in the world while India, the world`s largest democracy,
ranked 118 followed by Mayanmar, Egypt and Armenia, according to a report that urged nations regardless of wealth to tackle inequality and protect the environment.

India ranked 118th, down from 117th in 2015. India also ranked below nations like Somalia (76), China (83), Pakistan (92), Iran (105), Palestinian Territories (108) and Bangladesh (110).

The 2016 World Happiness Report, released on Wednesday seeks to quantify happiness as a means of making societies healthier and more efficient. The United Nations published the first such study in 2012.

As with last year, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden round out the top 10, making small or medium-sized countries in Western Europe seven of the top 10 happiest countries.

Denmark, which was ranked first in the 2012 and 2013 versions of the report but lost that honor to Switzerland in 2015, now reclaims its title as happiest country on Earth.

Burundi was the most miserable, followed by war-ravaged Syria, Togo, Afghanistan and six other countries in sub-Saharan Africa -- Benin, Rwanda, Guinea, Liberia, Tanzania and Madagascar as the least happy of 157 countries.

The report compared data from 2005 to 2015 showing that Greece, which suffered enormously from the global recession and now faces a crippling migrant crisis, had the highest drop in happiness.

The United States, where sharp polarization has been exposed in the 2016 presidential election campaign, out-ranked several Western European countries to be 13th most happy nation, up two spots from last year.

Germany was 16th, Britain 23rd and France 32nd. A string of Middle Eastern kingdoms -- Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain -- out-ranked Italy, which came in at number 50, and Japan, which took the 53rd spot.

With Agency Inputs