Finns are the happiest people in the world. This is clear from the World Happiness Report published on Monday. Finland has been ranked as the country with the happiest population in the world for the sixth year in a row. Bulgaria is in 77th place.

The World Happiness Report is prepared annually by scientists in the USA based on surveys by the Gallup Institute. They identify six key factors for happiness: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and lack of corruption.

According to the report, Finland is followed by Denmark, Iceland and Israel.

War-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Lebanon were ranked as the least happy countries.

Bulgaria's ranking this year is eight places higher than last year and eleven places higher than two years ago. Among the countries ranked close to Bulgaria are Ecuador, Peru and the Philippines, which occupy the 74th, 75th and 76th places. The three countries after Bulgaria are Nepal, Armenia and Tajikistan.

Bulgaria's neighbors are ranked as follows: Romania - 24th place; Serbia - 45th place; Greece - 58th place; Republic of North Macedonia - 87th place; Turkey - 106th place.

Ukraine (92nd) and Russia (70th) are slightly higher in the new report than a year ago, although Ukraine's overall score - unlike Russia's - has decreased minimally. "Despite the scale of suffering and damage in Ukraine, in September 2022 life estimates remain higher than after the 2014 annexation," the researchers wrote, referring to the year of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

According to the experts' conclusions, this is due, among other things, to the already much stronger sense of belonging and trust in the leadership around President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trust in governments increased in both countries in 2022, but much more so in Ukraine than in Russia. "The Russian invasion forged a nation out of Ukraine," said one of the report's authors, Oxford professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve.

The World Day of Happiness was announced by the UN General Assembly in 2012. The initiator of the holiday is the small South Asian country of Bhutan. The purpose of this day is to highlight the importance of happiness and well-being in the lives of people around the world.

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