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It’s no fluke, Israel is world’s 11th happiest nation, say UN rankings

156 countries are part of the UN index

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Israel has remained the 11th happiest country in the United Nations’ international happiness rankings – for the fifth year in a row.

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network asks citizens of 156 countries around the world to evaluate the quality of their lives on a scale of one to ten.

Part of the study also focused, for the first time, on Russian immigrants to Israel, finding that although they had experienced some problems in their new country, they saw their lives as being more positive post-migration.

Last week, during an interview with an American radio host, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, spoke about Israel’s consistently high ranking in international happiness standards.

“People say, ‘how can that be? Must be a fluke,’ but it keeps going up and they say, ‘how can it be? It’s a country in this horrible neighbourhood, you’ve got terrorism, you’ve got radical Islam, you’ve got challenges,’ but it comes up ahead of most countries in the world.

“They say, ‘yes, but that’s the old timers, they are already fixed, their lives are okay, but that’s the old people, what about the young people? You know where they [young people] come up [in the rankings]? Number five.

“They have a real confidence in the future.”

By contrast, the Palestinian territories, considered a country for the purposes of the UN report, came in at 104. The UK ranks at 19, one place behind the United States.

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