The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The World Happiness Report 2018, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants.
The report mentions, increasingly, with Globalisation, the people of the world are on the move; and most of these migrants are seeking a happier life. But do they achieve it? That is the central issue considered in this 2018 World Happiness Report.
Malta ranks 22nd in Global Happiness Rankings. Finland is the happiest country in the world in first place, followed by Norway, Denmark Iceland and Netherlands.
| Happiness | Ranking |
| Finland | 1 |
| Norway | 2 |
| Denmark | 3 |
| Iceland | 4 |
| Switzerland | 5 |
| Netherlands | 6 |
| Ireland | 14 |
| Germany | 15 |
| Belgium | 16 |
| Malta | 22 |
| United Kingdom | 19 |
| Cyprus | 61 |
| Portugal | 77 |
| Greece | 79 |
How international are the world’s happiest countries with immigration?
The most striking finding of the whole report is that a ranking of countries according to the happiness of their immigrant populations is almost exactly the same as for the rest of the population.
The immigrant happiness rankings are based on the full span of Gallup data from 2005 to 2017, sufficient to have 117 countries with more than 100 immigrant respondents. Finland is at the top of both rankings in this report, with the happiest immigrants, and the happiest population in general.
what determines the happiness of immigrants living in different countries and coming from different, other countries? Three striking facts emerge.
- In the typical country, immigrants are about as happy as people born locally.
- The happiness of each migrant depends not only on the happiness of locals but also on the level of happiness in the migrant’s country of origin.
- The happiness of immigrants also depends importantly on how accepting the locals are towards immigrants.
