#Headlines

Gambia bags most happy country in West Africa, 8th in Africa

May 24, 2022, 11:30 AM | Article By: Ali Jaw

The Gambia has again bagged ‘one of the happiest countries in West Africa’ and the 8th happiest country in the entire African continent, way ahead of Senegal, Ghana and other countries, according to the 10th edition of the World Happiness Report 2022, a publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The report was written by a group of independent experts and the findings are based on global survey data to report how people evaluate their own lives in more than 150 countries worldwide.

According to the report, Mauritius is the happiest country in the continent while Zimbabwe is the most unhappy or sad country in Africa.

The top 10 countries that were able to bag a place in the top 10 happiest countries in the African continent were Mauritius, Libya, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Gambia, Algeria, Liberia, Congo, Morocco, Mozambique, which all scored 6. 071, 5.330, 5.235, 5.194, 5.164, 5.122, 5.122 and 5.048.respectively.

The least happy countries in the continent includes Mauritania, Togo, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, who score 4.152, 4.112, 3.760, 3.750, 3.502, 3.574, 3.512, 3.471, 3. 268 and 2.995 respectively.

Globally, Finland is the happiest country on earth in 2022 and Afghanistan, whose political affairs is currently in the hand of the Talibans, as the least happy country or the saddest country in the world.

Ranking the countries, the researchers examined several factors such as generosity, the perception of corruption, social support, healthy life expectancy at birth, GDP per Capita, freedom to make life choices.

Again, most, if not all, countries that have recently experienced military takeovers were ranked low, among the least happy countries in the world. Guinea is ranked the 109 happiest country, Burkina Faso is ranked 113, Mali is ranked at 123, Myanmar is ranked 126 and Afghanistan, the last, is ranked 146 position.

The report, however, surprised the world by ranking Rwanda, which has been attracting attention recently due to the unprecedented pace of development being registered, as the 4th saddest country in the world, as it occupies the 3rd to last place in the table.