The world is filled with rankings that measure wealth, health, longevity, fertility, ease of doing business, corruption and on and on. But there’s one survey that combines many of this areas and goes to the core of the meaning of life: happiness.
And on this score, Ukrainians are decidedly in the unhappy camp.
This is the conclusion of the latest World Happiness Report by the United Nations, published on March 14. The yearly report ranks how happy the citizens feel in 156 countries.
Ukraine ranked 138th in the 2018 report, dropping from the 132nd position it held a year ago.
Ukraine has been falling in the ranking since 2013 when it ranked 87th. The next year marked the beginning of Russia’s war in the eastern Donbas, which has killed more than 10,000 people since then and also dealt a blow to happiness.
The Scandinavian countries dominate the 2018 list, with Finland being ranked as the happiest country.
Among other participants, Germany ranked 15th, the United States 18th, United Kingdom 19th, Japan 54th, Russia 59th. The least happy countries are the Central African Republic and Burundi.
The ranking takes into account life quality factors like income, life expectancy, social support, freedom, and trust.
Since the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the beginning of the war, Ukraine’s economy has suffered severely, affecting the quality of living of Ukrainians.
Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia, lost nearly 70 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar, while gross domestic product per capita stood at just $2,459 in 2017, marking a significant fall from the $3,969 in 2013. Among European countries, only Moldova has a lower GDP per capita.
And the average salary in Ukraine stands at just $290 as of January, having fallen from the $333 it was in December. For comparison, its neighbor Poland boasts an average monthly salary of 860 euros – and ranks 42nd in the World Happiness Report.
As all the factors of ranking happiness are strongly connected with each other, there is also a proportional connection between income and healthy life expectancy. World Bank in 2015 estimated the average life expectancy in Ukraine as 71 years – or 10 years less than in Western European and Scandinavian counties.
Ukraine is now experiencing a demographic gap, as fewer children are born and many Ukrainians, especially from the west of the country, are leaving to work abroad. As a result, in the last 25 years, the country’s population decreased from 52 million to about 42 million people.
A part of this year’s World Happiness Report is focused on migration within and between countries and its effect on happiness levels. It found that migrants in their typical country of destination usually feel as happy as those born locally.
Since Russia’s war started in eastern Ukraine in 2014, nearly 1.3 million Ukrainians left Ukraine, according to the State Statistics Service.
They mostly went to the countries that take much higher spots in the ranking of happiness. Among them are Israel, U.S., Germany, Poland, and others.
