Singapore is still happiest country in Asia

According to the World Happiness Report 2024, which was released on March 20, Singapore is the happiest country in Asia for the second year running.

The other countries in the top 10, in descending order, are Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, China and Mongolia.

In the world ranking, Singapore stands at No. 30 out of the 143 countries surveyed.

Gleaned from the Gallup World Poll data and organisations such as World Bank and World Health Organization, the study measured average life evaluations from 2021 to 2023. The six key areas the data covered were GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption.

“Singapore did very well in terms of GDP per capita, one of the highest ranking in our dataset,” the report's editor and co-author Shun Wang told CNBC Make It.

“That means Singapore’s government is really clean and their people really have a very low perception of corruption ... even lower than Denmark or Norway."

Denmark is ranked second in this report while Norway stands at No. 7.

The report listed Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among Asia’s least happy countries.