MANILA, Philippines — World Happiness Report announced that the Philippines is the second happiest country in Southeast Asia this year.
Garnering a score of 5.904, the country overall ranked 60th out of 146 countries.
The report measures happiness “based on life evaluations as the more stable measure of the quality of people's lives.”
According to the report published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Singapore ranked 1st in the Southeast Asia region, ranking 27th overall with a score of 6.480.
“The most remarkable change seen during COVID-19 has been the global upsurge in benevolence in 2021. This benevolence has provided notable support for the life evaluations of givers, receivers, and observers, who have been gratified to see their community’s readiness to reach out to help each other in times of need,” the report read.
“In every global region, there have been large increases in the proportion of people who give money to charity, help strangers, and do voluntary work in every global region," it said.
The future of happiness will depend on the pandemic situation and the scale of military conflict, it added.
Finland remains the happiest country in the world for the fifth straight year with a score of 7.821. Afghanistan, meanwhile, is at the bottom with a score of 2.404.
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