According to the 2023 World Happiness Report which was released on Monday, 20 March 2023, Israel’s rank jumped to 4th place out of 109 countries reviewed, moving up from last year’s 9th place.
The report measures six factors in determining happiness, including social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. The survey also reflects how various people report their quality of life and deals with subjective well-being.
The report also showed that despite various global crises faced by many countries, most of their populations continued to maintain their overall levels of happiness and satisfaction, even during the COVID-19 pandemic and matched that of pre-pandemic levels.
An interesting and encouraging insight was that for a second year in a row various expressions of everyday kindness, such as helping strangers, donating to charity, and volunteering, are above pre-pandemic levels and in general acts of kindness have been shown to both lead to and stem from greater happiness.
| The top ten countries by rank | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1. |
Finland |
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6. |
Sweden |
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2. |
Denmark |
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7. |
Norway |
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3. |
Iceland |
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8. |
Switzerland |
|
|
4. |
Israel |
|
9. |
Luxembourg |
|
|
5. |
Netherlands |
|
10. |
New Zealand |
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| The top ten countries by rank | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. |
Finland |
|
|||
|
2. |
Denmark |
|
|||
|
3. |
Iceland |
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|||
|
4. |
Israel |
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5. |
Netherlands |
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6. |
Sweden |
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|||
|
7. |
Norway |
|
|||
|
8. |
Switzerland |
|
|||
|
9. |
Luxembourg |
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|||
|
10. |
New Zealand |
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Despite Israel’s diverse society with a mix of Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze, the happiness gap in the country between the top and bottom half of the population was relatively small. It’s important to note that all the countries that ranked above Israel in the happiness equality assessment were all far more homogenous than Israel.
Source: World Happiness