PETALING JAYA: According to the World Happiness Report 2024, which was released on March 20, Malaysia has fallen four places to 59th happiest country globally, a drop from its 55th position last year.
For the ASEAN region, Malaysia has been overtaken by Thailand at 58th, Vietnam at 54th and the Philippines at 53rd, slipping to the 5th happiest nation in Southeast Asia.
The report uses data from surveys conducted between 2021-2023 by the U.S. research firm Gallup as well as information from global organisations like the World Bank and World Health Organisation.
It ranks nations based on their average life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll’s Cantril ladder question between 2021-2023. While variables like GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption help explain life evaluation differences across countries, the rankings solely rely on individuals’ self-assessed life satisfaction.
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The study, conducted between 2021-2023, reported that Malaysia’s happiness rankings varied by age group, placing 56th among those under 30 and 71st for individuals over 60 with specific age categories as follows: Young adults at 64th, Lower Middle age group at 66th, Upper Middle at 60th and the oldest demographic at 71st, indicating the youngest were the happiest and the oldest, the least happy.
On the other hand, Singapore remains Asia’s happiest place, ranking 1st and 30th worldwide while other ASEAN rankings saw Indonesia at 80th, Laos at 94th and Cambodia at 119th.
Malaysia is now the only ASEAN country globally whose happiness ranking has fallen compared to the 2018 report, while all other Southeast Asian nations recorded an increase in their standings.
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