'They never surveyed me': Singapore named happiest country in Asia, several netizens disagree

We may not rank highly when it comes to male genitals, but Singapore is officially the happiest country in Asia.

That is according to the latest World Happiness Report released by the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network on Monday (March 20).

March 20 is the International Day of Happiness, a day designated by the UN that's marking its 10th anniversary in 2023.

In a league table of 137 countries, Singapore is ranked 25th in the world – up two places from last year. 

Sitting pretty as the happiest country in Asia, we are followed closely by Taiwan at number 27.

Other Asian countries ranked include Japan (47), Malaysia (55), Thailand (60), China, (64), Vietnam (65), the Philippines (76), Indonesia (84) and India (126).

The report also gave a shout-out to Singapore's efforts to deter crime and reintegrate offenders into society.

"A good example of prisoners, wardens and the community collaborating to enable prisoners to have better lives, in which they return to the institutions later as volunteers rather than prisoners," it said.

But it seems that several netizens were not too happy about Singapore's place in the rankings. 

"They never surveyed me," a netizen said, while another wondered if they "surveyed only rich people".

In a discussion thread on HardwareZone forum, a netizen listed the one thing that's bugging him. 

Another netizen pointed out a potential flaw in the rankings.

But there are others who are the happier lot.

Taking the number one spot in the happiness league table is Finland – for the sixth year in a row.

The Nordic country is followed by Denmark, Iceland and Israel.

War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey.

Overall, the World Happiness Report looks at six factors to work out how happy people are from a given country.

These factors are GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and absence of corruption.

The report draws on global survey data from people in more than 150 countries.

chingshijie@asiaone.com

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