According to a report compiled by Academics from some of America’s leading universities, Albanians are in the bottom 50 least happy citizens in the world.
Ranking just 0.023 points happier than Palestine and 0.051 points higher than the failed state of Somalia, it is ranked as the unhappiest country in the Western Balkans with a score of 4.719- with 10 for “the best possible life” and 0 for the “worst possible life”.
Locally, Albania was beaten by all countries: Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo which ranked 46 happiness places higher.
The World Happiness Report 2019 is a global survey of the state of citizens across 156 countries. It ranks them based on how happy they perceive themselves to be, with a focus on community, social norms, conflicts and government policies.
The first report was released in April 2012 in conjunction with a United Nations High Level meeting on wellbeing and happiness. Since then, the report has evolved to create a real indication of the quality of people’s lives through the coherent and reliable assessment of well-being measurements.
With 156 countries ranked in terms of their citizens perceived happiness, a number of factors are taken into account. Ranking at number 40 for life expectancy and number 60 for generosity, these positive scores are overshadowed by a depressing 134th place ranking for corruption and 133rd place ranking for social support.
Other factors relating to the discontent of Albanian citizens include low levels of freedom and a low GDP per capita.
According to the data, Albanians have got happier since 2005 but only by 0.084 of a point, suggesting that little has changed in terms of their quality of life in the last 14 years.
The happiest country in the world for 2019 is Finland, closely followed by Nordic neighbours Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
Finland’s results show that citizens are most happy with the level of social support they receive, as well as low levels of corruption, and high levels of personal freedom. They do however rank lower than Albania in terms of generosity, which comes as no surprise due to the longstanding Albanian tradition of generous hospitality.
— Alice Elizabeth Taylor
