TODAY.AZ / Society

Azerbaijan among top 5 happiest countries

11 February 2015 [19:46] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Azerbaijan was among the top 5 happiest countries in the world in 2014, according to a report by the world's influential research organization.

A vast majority of Azerbaijan's population - 85 percent - consider they happy, said the End of Year research published by WIN/Gallup International, the world’s leading association in market research and polling.

As result of the survey conducted among 64,002 people in 65 countries, WIN/Gallup International said the overall happiness rose from 60 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2014.

Azerbaijan's place among the happiest countries is not surprising given the versatile development covering almost all spheres of life in the country.

"Rate of happiness is increasing in those countries where progress and improvement of the existing situation are observed. In other words, happiness is there where justice and hope are on top," Andrey Milekhin, Director and Coordinator of WIN/Gallup International on Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS countries, said while commenting on Azerbaijan's ranking.

Economic growth in Azerbaijan will outrun the average global rate by one percent (4.4 percent in Azerbaijan against 3 percent in the world), according to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects forecast report issued in mid-January this year.

Novie Izvestiya, a Russian media outlet, said the Azerbaijanis it has interviewed so far unanimously have a faith in the country's future and feel themselves happy.

Most of the Russian tourists that have been to Baku are enchanted with the city's beauty, calling it a grandiose megalopolis of modernity and antiquity, and a very comfortable place, according to Novie Izvestiya.

WIN/Gallup International's report said Fiji is the happiest country as 93 percent of its population feel happy. Iraq is the least happy with only 31 percent of citizens feeling happy.

Azerbaijan's regional neighbors Russia, Armenia and Georgia were ranked 32nd, 48th and 51st respectively.

Africa (75 percent) and Asia (63 percent) are the most confident that 2015 will be better than 2014, while just 12 percent of Western Europeans believe that 2015 will be a year of economic prosperity. Three out of five people globally would go to war for their country, with Middle East and North Africa (77 percent) in a stark contrast to Western Europe (25 percent).

URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/138695.html

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