An annual UN-sponsored report has named Finland as the happiest place in the world for a fourth year running.
The World Happiness Report saw Denmark in second place, then Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
New Zealand was again the only non-European nation in the top 10 while the UK fell from 13th to 17th place.
Data from analytics researcher Gallup asked people in 149 countries to rate their own happiness with measures including social support, personal freedom, gross domestic product (GDP) and levels of corruption also factoring in.
The country deemed the most unhappy in the world was Afghanistan, followed by Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
The report authors said that there was a significantly higher frequency of negative emotions in just over a third of the countries , likely pointing to the effects of the pandemic.
The author’s also reported that Finland ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.
The Nordic nation of 5.5 million people has managed far better than the majority of Europe during the pandemic, with just over 70,000 cases and 805 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University .
According to the report, the ten happiest countries are:
Finland
Denmark
Switzerland
Iceland
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Luxembourg
New Zealand
Austria
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