Taiwan ranked Asia’s happiest location

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network 2022 World Happiness Report has refreshed the list of happiest places in the world with Taiwan leading the way in Asia at 26^th place. Regionally, Taiwan ranked as the happiest place in East Asia beating out other rival locations.

Hong Kong, however, saw its happiness plunge ranking 79^th overall, one place behind Russia. Comparatively, Mainland China (71^st), South Korea (58^th), Japan (53^rd) and Singapore (28^th) all bested Hong Kong as did Vietnam, Thailand and The Philippines. Mainland China’s position improved since the onset of COVID jumping more than 20 places whilst Hong Kong’s happiness has declined—sliding six places over the same period.

The report measured people’s subject evaluation of their well-being with six key metrics: GDP, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and freedom from corruption. This year, the report highlighted the impact that COVID-19 has had on people’s well-being noting that Taiwan has suffered less from the pandemic compared to its Asian neighbours.

Elsewhere, the 2022 report named Finland as the happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row with the remainder of the top 10 comprised of other European nations with the exception of Israel (9^th) and New Zealand (10^th). At the other end of the spectrum, the world’s unhappiest place was Afghanistan, ranking 141^st.