The Gambia is the 5th happiest country in Africa and 93rd happiest in the world, according to the 2023 World Happiness Report.
The Gambia is, therefore, happier than 49 states across the region, behind only four – Mauritius, Libya, Ivory Coast and South Africa respectively.
This year’s report ranks 146 countries considering factors such as GDP per capita, freedom to make life choices, social support, perception of corruption, and healthy life expectancy at birth.
Ranking behind The Gambia are Algeria, Liberia, Congo, Morocco and Mozambique respectively. Together with the first five that include The Gambia, these countries make up the top ten happiest in Africa.
Meanwhile, Senegal ranks 12th position in Africa, behind Cameroon, and 103rd in the globe.
The World Happiness Report (WHR) is a publication of the Sustainable Development Solution Network, which mainly uses data from the Gallup World Poll, a surveying company.
The report is released every year on March 20 as part of the International Day of Happiness celebration, which was adopted by the United Nations as Resolution 66/281 on 28 June 2012.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the report since its first release on April 1, 2012 as a foundational text for the UN high-level meeting – ‘Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm’.
The 2023 WHR is a triennial analysis and evaluation of 2020, 2021 and 2022, as the pandemic hampered its release for 2020 and 2021.
