This represents a drop of seven places from 95th in the 2023 report by Sustainable Development Solutions.
According to the report, released annually to mark the International Day of Happiness, designated by the United Nations and celebrated on March 20, Nigeria now ranks 102 out of the 143 countries surveyed.
Finland also remains the world’s happiest country for a seventh straight year in the report published.
And Nordic countries kept their places among the 10 most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.
For the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany were not among the 20 happiest nations, coming in 23rd and 24th respectively.
Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed.
In turn, Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 at 12 and 13.
The report noted the happiest countries no longer included any of the world’s largest countries.
In the top 10 countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations over 30 million.”
The sharpest decline in happiness since 2006-10 was noted in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan, while the Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases.
The happiness ranking is based on individuals’ self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.
According to the latest edition of the World Happiness Report released on Wednesday, Nigeria ranks 102nd happiest nation in the world.
