Unhappy Armenia

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

"Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response" they say. The latest worldwide happiness report revealed that Armenia is most definitely not experiencing any forms of happiness.

The World Happiness Report, a landmark survey of the state of global happiness, put Armenia 127th among 158 nations in terms of happiness.

The report developed by leading experts in the fields of economics, psychology, health, public policy and more gave 4.350 points to Armenia that testifies to the unhappy atmosphere which seems to reign in Armenia. Happiness in the country has fallen short due to the lack of noble atmosphere, a lack of civil liberties and freedom as well as pandemic corruption, the report said.

The WHR, published by the New-York based Sustainable Development Solutions Network, reviewed the state of happiness in the world today and showed how the new science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness. It reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness as criteria for government policy.

The third happiness report of the SDSN was developed based on the same indices that were the key factors in preparing previous reports in 2012 and 2013. Welfare of the population, GDP share per capita, security level, number of divorces, unemployment rate, corruption, civil liberties are the cornerstone factors defining the effectiveness of the report.

The official unemployment rate in Armenia stands at 17 percent of the population, according to the National Statistics Service. Corruption is one of the most problematic fields challenging social welfare and the index of freedom from corruption in Armenia stands at 26.7, which is under the world average, according to the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom. It also shows that bribery is deeply rooted in Armenian society and none of the adopted anti-corruption measures have so far been able to tackle it.

Specialists conducted surveys in the form of questionnaires among 158 nations to acquire the most precise outcomes in line with the mentioned criteria.

Armenia's regional neighbors Georgia and Azerbaijan ranked the 130th and the 80th respectively. Kenya, Botswana, Cameroon, Angola, Mali figured behind the smallest South Caucasus nation. The Eurasian Economic Union allies of Armenia - Russia (64th), Kazakhstan (54th), Belarus (59th) were also included in the list, showing far more better results.

Switzerland topped the list followed by Iceland, Denmark and Norway. World leaders including the U.S., Germany, the UK, Japan and China sat in the middle, mostly regressing in terms of happiness rate.