Taiwan was ranked the fourth-happiest country in Asia, the second-happiest in East Asia and 27th in the world, in the World Happiness Report released on Monday by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
The report compiled data from surveys conducted in more than 150 countries and territories to measure happiness based on average evaluations over a three-year period. It used six factors — social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption — to evaluate happiness levels in countries around the world.
In the broad Asia grouping, Taiwan trailed Israel (No. 4 globally), Singapore (No. 25) and the United Arab Emirates (No. 26), but ranked second for East Asia behind Singapore and ahead of Japan (No. 47).
Photo: CNA
In the previous report, Taiwan was ranked fourth in the broader Asia grouping, after Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while ranking No. 1 among countries in East Asia.
Worldwide, Taiwan ranked No. 27, down one spot from a year earlier.
Finland, with a population of 5.5 million and which boasts a comprehensive welfare system, a high degree of equality and a high level of trust in the government by its citizens, was ranked as the No. 1 happiness country in the world for the sixth consecutive year, ahead of Denmark, Iceland, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand.
The Nordic country and its neighbors Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway scored well because they “all have high ranks for both happiness and equality,” the report said.
“The Nordic countries merit special attention in light of their generally high levels of both personal and institutional trust,” it said.
The US was ranked the 15th-happiest country, while China and Hong Kong were ranked 64th and 82nd respectively.
Despite being invaded by Russia, Ukraine’s happiness ranking rose to 92nd, from 98th a year earlier. Russia was ranked 70th.
“Despite the magnitude of suffering and damage in Ukraine, life evaluations in September 2022 remained higher than in the aftermath of the 2014 annexation [of Crimea], supported by a stronger sense of common purpose, benevolence and trust in the Ukrainian leadership,” the report said.
Afghanistan remained at the bottom of the report, and has been ranked the unhappiest nation since 2020, when US troops began withdrawing from the country.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching