Deep blue: Hong Kong tumbles to 75th in world happiness rankings, lowest since UN report debuted
The showing extends a downward trend for the city, which hit a high of 46th in 2012
Hong Kong is barely ahead of Somalia and well below Libya after tumbling to its lowest level in the United Nations’ global ranking of happiness.
It was the city’s lowest ranking yet in the UN survey. In 2012, when the survey debuted, Hong Kong was placed 46th, but tumbled to 64th the following year. No index was compiled for 2014.
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The report concluded that countries and territories with a small wealth gap had happier citizens. Inequality was identified as the biggest cause of unhappiness.
The UN-backed index calculates its rating based on surveying 1,000 people a year for three years, the latest from 2013 to 2015. Each country is measured according to six factors: GDP per capita, life expectancy, social welfare support, freedom from corruption, freedom to make life choices and generosity.
City University academic Professor Dennis Wong Sing-wing said: “It’s really hard to compare the conditions of a smaller country to a large city.”
Last January, CityU released its own happiness happiness, comparing Hong Kong to the South Korean capital, Seoul, and Osaka in Japan. Professor Wong said a comparison of Hong Kong’s happiness with major cities was a better measure of public sentiment than against other nations and territories.
The survey found Hongkongers were least happy about politics, the economy, environment, health, entertainment and housing.