Israel is the world’s 13th-happiest country, according to the 2019 World Happiness Report published on Wednesday.
The result this year was slightly down from last year’s report, in which Israel was in 11th place.
Produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in conjunction with the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the report uses data from the Gallup polling company to track how citizens of different nations see their own level of happiness. The data were based on surveys that asked respondents to rate their level of life satisfaction on a scale of one to 10.
The happiest country on the list is Finland, with Norway and Sweden also making the top 10. The United States came in at No. 19.
In last place at No. 156, South Sudan was the least happy country of those surveyed. Also landing in the bottom 10 countries were Syria (149), Yemen (151) and Afghanistan (154).
The report also tracked the changes in the level of happiness for 132 countries over the past decade. Israel’s happiness increased by .05 points on a scale of 0-10. The minuscule increase was not surprising, given that Israeli citizens have consistently reported high levels of happiness. While the country of Benin saw the largest increase in happiness, Venezuela’s happiness level dropped by almost 2 points, only slightly more than Syria.
The theme of the report this year was migration and its effect on world happiness. Specific chapters also analyzed the effect of happiness on citizens’ voting patterns, and the adverse effects of technology and digital media on happiness in the US, as well as the relationship between happiness levels and addiction in American society.