Israel maintained its position in the World Happiness Report published on Wednesday, ranking fifth in the annual ranking, dropping one place compared to last year's list despite a year characterized by political turmoil, social schisms, Hamas' attack on October 7 and the start of the Gaza war.
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The report's authors noted the ranking is based on a three-year average (2021-2023), so the effects of a specific year are limited. Therefore, if the survey - conducted in October and November 2023 and after October 7 - relied on 2023 alone, Israel would likely have dropped further in the ranking, but probably still have secured a relatively high place.
The survey was conducted before October 7 in the West Bank and Gaza, and even then the Palestinians were only ranked 103rd out of 143 countries.
Another finding from the survey marks the significant gap between older and younger people in Israel: While Israel rank second for ages 30-44, it is only ranked in 18th place among adults over 60.
The UN's World Happiness Report has been published since 2011 in honor of the International Day of Happiness. In the surveys on which the ranking is based, respondents are asked to rate their level of happiness from 1 to 10. They assess the level of support they receive from the state in times of need, the level of freedom in their country, as well as the level of corruption.
The Nordic countries remain at the top of the list in the current report. Finland, a welfare state with one of the lowest income gaps between rich and poor among OECD countries, remained in first place for the seventh consecutive year, followed by Denmark and Iceland.
Switzerland continues to decline in the ranking, now in ninth place compared to eighth place last year and fourth place in 2022. Also placed in the top ten are Sweden in fourth place, the Netherlands in sixth place, Norway in seventh place, Luxembourg in eighth place, and Australia in 10th place.
Afghanistan and Lebanon maintained their places at the bottom of the list. Zambia, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and the Congo were also ranked at the bottom. While Russia dropped only two places in the ranking, now occupying 72nd place, Ukraine experienced a significant drop from 92nd place last year to 105th in the current index.
Ukraine's decline in the list occurred after residents reported a higher level of happiness before the start of the war with Russia in 2014 and increased confidence in the Ukrainian leadership.
Anat Fanti, a happiness policy researcher at Bar-Ilan University's Program for Science, Technology and Society, said the reason for Israel's high ranking is rooted in the fact that life satisfaction - the measure by which happiness is examined - remains stable over time and relates more to the characteristics of the country itself, such as economic strength, social involvement and health care services, rather than emotions.
"Israel's fifth place ranking in the World Happiness Report indicates stability in life satisfaction over the years, and not just over the past year. For example, even during the traumatic period of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the top ten countries that ranked highest on the list remained relatively the same," according to Fanti.
"The 2023 survey was conducted in October and November, immediately after October 7, which is a national trauma. Data analysis indicates that if the ranking relied solely on 2023 Israel would have plummeted in the global happiness ranking to a certain extent," she said.
In addition to life satisfaction, the report examines the level of positive and negative emotions experienced by the population.
"In the positive emotions index, Israel dropped from 114th to 123rd place in the survey. This shows a decline, but I estimate that the decrease in positive emotions was less significant than expected due to the population's remarkable resilience," Fanti said.
"Conversely, Israel rose from 119th to 60th place in the world when it came to experiencing negative emotions, reflecting a dramatic increase," she added. "If the report data only reflected the October-November 2023 figures and not a three-year average, our ranking in negative emotions would have been even higher than expected, given the survey's proximity to the events of October 7."
"We can't ignore the economic, social and emotional implications of the war as reflected in the decline of emotional indicators in Israel, especially when looking at what happened to these indicators in Ukraine two years into the war with Russia," she further added.
"Policymakers must address these data and provide preemptive solutions in all areas of life in Israel so that the quality of life and life satisfaction in the country don't deteriorate in all important indicators."