TIRANA, March 16 – Albania ranked as one of the least happy countries in Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2016 presented this week in Rome.
The study, released by UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, takes into consideration a series of factors including political systems, the degree of corruption in society, education and healthcare, while for the first time it took into account the effects of income inequality.
Albania ranked in an unenviable 109th position among 157 countries surveyed worldwide, which makes Albania the second unhappiest country in Europe after Bulgaria ranked 128th.
Compared to last year’s ranking, it lost 14 positions dropping from 95th place.
Meanwhile, Kosovo whose population consists of an ethnic Albanian majority ranked 77th, marking a decline compared to the previous report, too.
The happiest country in the region was Romania in 71st position, followed by Croatia in 74th and Kosovo. Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro ranked 86th, 87th and 89th respectively, whereas Greece took 99th spot.
The World Happiness Report 2016 was topped by Denmark, which reclaimed the title of world’s happiest country from Switzerland. Iceland completed the top three in the happiness report, which is the fourth annual survey of its kind.
Meanwhile, Togo, Syria and Burundi ranked at the other end of the scale as the world’s unhappiest countries.
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