TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Singapore has been voted the happiest country in Asia for the second consecutive year, according to the 2024 World Happiest Country Report released Wednesday, March 20, 2024. Singapore ranked 30th out of 143 countries surveyed for the study.

Finland is the happiest country this year, followed by Denmark and Iceland. The World Happiness Report is a joint effort of some of the world's leading well-being researchers and scientists.

The happiness rankings in this study are supported by Gallup World Poll data, which measures individuals' average life evaluation over three years from 2021 to 2023.

The 10 happiest countries in Asia are Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Next are Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, China, and Mongolia. Indonesia is not on the list.

Experts analyzed data on six key factors, namely GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity, and perception of corruption.

"These factors help to explain the differences across nations, while the rankings themselves are based only on the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives," according to the World Happiness Report statement.

The data collected for the six factors comes from organizations such as the World Bank, World Health Organization, and Gallup World Poll.

"Singapore did very well in terms of GDP per capita, one of the highest rankings in our dataset," said Shun Wang, co-author and editor of the World Happiness Report 2024 to CNBC.

Singapore also does very well in terms of perception of corruption, the lowest among all countries. "That means Singapore’s government is clean and their people really have a very low perception of corruption ... even lower, you know, than Denmark or Norway," Wang added.

According to the report, Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are some of the unhappiest countries in Asia. India, the world's most populous country, ranked 126th out of 143 countries surveyed.

Indonesia, meanwhile, is ranked 80th in the World Happiest Country data, below Colombia and Venezuela, which are ranked 78th and 79th, respectively.

CNBC | WORLD POPULATION REVIEW

Editor’s Choice: List of Top 5 Happiest Countries in the World, All in Europe

Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News