WHY IS NEPAL THE HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN SOUTH ASIA?

 WHY IS NEPAL THE HAPPIEST COUNTRY IN SOUTH ASIA?

I was actually surprised when UN placed Nepal at the 87th rank out of 149 countries in the World Happiness Report, defeating all other South Asian countries. Yes, according to the report Nepal is the happiest country in South Asia according to the rank with Bangladesh at 94, Pakistan at 121, Sri Lanka at 127, India at 136 and Afghanistan at 146. However, the experts, and me myself, are skeptic.

High inflation, poor governance, high corruption, unemployment. Yet Nepal ranked higher than all south Asian countries. Some sociologists believe respondents might have presented only the rosy sides. A section of Nepalis was quick to take to social media to celebrate Nepal’s ranking. But there were some voices questioning what actually makes Nepalis happy. 

 Apparently, the report is based on the responses of around 1,000 people from each country, irrespective of their population size. This simple fact about the survey makes it 100% unreliable, in my opinion. But one simple explanation for Nepal's position is that our fellow South Asian neighbors are much "unhappier" than we are. In other words, other South Asian countries are facing much worse situations than we are.