World Happiness Report 2018

The World Happiness Report 2018, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants. The report ranks countries on six key variables that support well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity

The top ten happiest countries are:

1. Finland.
2. Norway.
3. Denmark.
4. Iceland.
5. Switzerland.
6. Netherlands.
7. Canada.
8. New Zealand.
9. Sweden.
10. Australia.

The 10 happiest countries were also 10 of the top 11 spots in the rankings of immigrant happiness. (Mexico, which came in 24th place in the overall rankings, placed 10th in the immigrant happiness rankings.) The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born.

The 10 unhappiest countries, 2018

147. Malawi
148. Haiti
149. Liberia
150. Syria
151. Rwanda
152. Yemen
153. Tanzania
154. South Sudan
155. Central African Republic 

156. Burundi

Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017

Singapore is the world’s most expensive city for the fifth straight year in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living report, with Paris and Zurich tied for second place. Asia Pacific and European destinations dominated the ranks of costliest cities identified in the report released this week. Tokyo and Osaka were conspicuous in their absence from the top 10, edged out by low inflation.

While personal experience and anecdotal data might influence how such lists are received, the EIU’s methodology involved collecting over 50,000 prices from a range of stores covering more than 160 items in each city. The prices were then converted to U.S. dollars and then weighted using an international base to achieve comparative indexes, before being ranked using New York as the base city.