"Inequality has increased in South Africa since apartheid" - World Bank

DIEPSLOOT, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 9: Sharon Ndlovu does her laundry next to sewage on June 9, 2015 in Diepsloot, South Africa. Diepsloot is plagues by constant sewage blockages that have the council worried. Authorities blame the overcrowding for the problem, saying the sewer systems that were built when the township was established were designed only to cover a certain number of people. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Antonio Muchave)

Happier under dictators? SA drops down to 105 on World Happiness Report

The United Nation’s World Happiness Report shows that South Africans are simply having a miserable time. Almost the most miserable time in the world.

"Inequality has increased in South Africa since apartheid" - World Bank

DIEPSLOOT, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 9: Sharon Ndlovu does her laundry next to sewage on June 9, 2015 in Diepsloot, South Africa. Diepsloot is plagues by constant sewage blockages that have the council worried. Authorities blame the overcrowding for the problem, saying the sewer systems that were built when the township was established were designed only to cover a certain number of people. (Photo by Gallo Images / Sowetan / Antonio Muchave)

On Wednesday the United Nations released their World Happiness Report. Unfortunately, the report only brings bad news for South Africa.

Ok, so you think South Africa has some problems do you? Would you have thought that our problems would make you more unhappy than if you lived under a dictator or in a terror-prone country?

Well, regardless of what we all may have thought, the report ranks South Africa as the 105th happiest country in the world. We sat in 101st position last year out of the 156 listed countries.

The report’s ranking broke the countries down according to their GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

As we’re sure everyone can imagine, South Africa was really held back by our score in the “perceptions of corruption” section.

“[Countries with] the largest declines in average life evaluations typically suffered some combination of economic, political, and social stresses,” the report says.

The two biggest movers on the report were Togo and the currently collapsing Venezuela. The West African country moved up 17 places to 139. Venezuela dropped down to 102. Even with everything going on there, they are still happier than us…

The report consists of data gathered by Gallup between 2015 and 2017.

In terms of Africa, eight of the continent’s countries proved to be happier than South Africa.

55 – Mauritius

70 – Libya

84 – Algeria

85 – Morocco

91 – Nigeria

98 – Somalia

99 – Cameroon

103 – Gabon

So what’s the happiest country in the world?

Believe it or not, Finland is the happiest. Scandinavia as a whole seems to be a pretty happy place with Norway, Denmark, Iceland an Switzerland also making up the top 10.

Canada and New Zealand clinched the 7th and 8th spot respectively too.

In terms of the “global superpowers,” the United States is slightly happier than the UK with the pair ranking in at 18th and 19th position.

Russia ended up in 59th while China sat all the way down in 86th.

Let’s hope the “Ramaphoria” helps our ranking and our citizens in time for next years list.