Why Afghanistan was world's unhappiest country, even before Taliban takeover
India Today
The World Happiness report ranked Afghanistan as last among 149 countries surveyed with a happiness rate of just 2.5. The results are curious, considering it analysed data before the arrival of the Taliban.
Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world -- even before the Taliban swept to power last August. That's according to a so-called World Happiness report released ahead of the UN-designated International Day of Happiness on Sunday.
The annual report ranked Afghanistan as last among 149 countries surveyed, with a happiness rate of just 2.5. Lebanon was the world's second saddest country, with Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe rounding out the bottom five. Finland ranked first for the fourth year running with a 7.8 score, followed by Denmark and Switzerland, with Iceland and the Netherlands also in the top five.
Researchers ranked the countries after analyzing data over three years. They looked at several categories including gross domestic product per capita, social safety nets, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity of the population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.
Afghanistan stacked up poorly in all six categories, a confounding result coming as it does before the Taliban's arrival and despite 20 years of US and international investment. The US alone spent $145 billion on development in Afghanistan since 2002, according to reports by the US special inspector general for Afghanistan.
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Still, there were signs of increasing hopelessness.
Gallup did a polling in 2018 and found few Afghans they surveyed had much hope for the future. In fact the majority said they had no hope for the future.
