March 21, 2023 - Croatia, the land of sunshine, sea, and wine. The land of pristine nature, and good food, always an inspiration for a good mood. The perfect mix of absurd and extraordinary. A laidback lifestyle for all. But how did it rank on the 2023 World Happiness Report?

Finland has been declared the country with the happiest population for the sixth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report that was published yesterday, as reported by Index.

The report, which also considered the effects of the crisis caused by the coronavirus on people's well-being, is compiled every year by scientists in the USA based on surveys by the Gallup Institute. 

According to the report, the happy Finns are followed by the residents of Denmark, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.

Croatia in 48th place

Croatia is in 48^th place, behind Japan and ahead of Brazil. Among Croatia's neighbouring countries, Slovenia ranks the happiest in 22^nd place, Italy in 33^rd place, Serbia comes in 45^th, while Hungary is 51^st. Montenegro is in 67^th place on the World Happiness Report, Bosnia and Herzegovina is in 71st^st place, while Kosovo is 34^th on the list.

Saudi Arabia is in 30^th place, Kazakhstan is in 44^th place, and Argentina is in 52^nd place. Greece is slightly lower on the report, in 58^th place, following South Korea. Russia is one spot above BiH; it is in 70^th place.

Albania is in 83^rd place, above Indonesia and South Africa.

At the bottom of the ranking are predominantly African countries, and war-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon are the two unhappiest countries in the world, concluded a survey that included a total of 137 countries.

Scientists claim that people's happiness assessment remained "remarkably resilient" despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with global averages from 2020 to 2022 as high as those in the pre-pandemic years of 2017 to 2019.

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March the 29th, 2021 - The World Happiness Report on Croatia and its details has been met with a few raised eyebrows. When talking about various lists and surveys, Croatia unfortunately doesn't tend to fare very well. Just how the country managed to jump from an unenviable 75th place to 23rd on the UN's The World Happiness Report is something baffling quite a few.

As Novac/Marina Klepo writes, Croatia hasn't been able to boast about its excellent ranking on any of the numerous charts of happiness and the like, but during the year of the coronavirus pandemic, it seems, it has experienced real providence. The ninth UN report The World Happiness Report, conducted by external experts (including John F. Halliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs), shows that among 95 countries, Croatia ranked 23rd last year, and in the period 2017- 2019, it was in a far less desirable 61st place.

In the previous report, from back in pre-pandemic 2019, which had a wider scope and included 156 countries, Croatia came in 75th place. This information, which points to a "rush of happiness" in 2020, seems so unreal that even well known news anchor Zoran Sprajc used it on RTL Direct only to point out, in his typical style, just how ridiculous these indicators can be.

Precisely what raised Croatia on this UN scale of happiness in just one single year, and during a year which was so difficult for the whole world? In an extensive survey based on the Gallup poll, last year brought a change in that questions were asked over the phone instead of face-to-face (previously discussed in three-quarters of countries). While this is a reason for caution in interpreting these latest results, the authors believe it didn't affect the overall ranking of countries because telephone surveys are very much the norm in most countries, pandemic or not.

The results of the questionnaire, which relate to the assessment of life, its positive (laughter and pleasure) and negative (anxiety, sadness) ingredients, indicate that at the top are those countries that have dropped the frequency of negative emotions the most. Although the report does not explain why the perception of happiness in Croatia has changed more than in any other country, the numbers show that there were significantly more positive and significantly fewer negative emotions, despite the pandemic and earthquake. One can only assume that it was these events that changed life’s priorities and preferences a bit, in line with the definition that happiness means having something to lose.

A previous World Happiness Report on Croatia, in which Croatia's residents were still very much on the unhappy side of life, showed that almost all comparable countries, including neighbouring Serbia and Montenegro, were better placed. Croatia's frustrated residents cited corruption and injustice and the feeling that they didn't have enough choices as the most common reasons for their sense of general dissatisfaction.

When it comes to the latest World Happiness Report on Croatia and the devastating impact of the ongoing coronavirus crisis on the overall well-being of individuals, the country is again not doing all that well. The index, which includes three variables - life expectancy, rising unemployment and mortality from SARS-CoV-2 - fell in all countries except for Egypt, China and Taiwan, which maintained the same levels respectively. On that scale, Croatia took 57th place.

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