Ghana has been ranked as the 98th and seventh happiest country in the world and Africa respectively in the 2019 World Happiness Report.

Finland according to the report is occupying the first position while South Sudan came last on the list of 156 countries ranked. Finland maintained first place with Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden, and Austria taking the second to 10th respectively.

The latest ranking is an improvement of Ghana’s ranking last year where it placed 108th and 12th in the world and Africa respectively.

In the Sub-Saharan African ranking, Ghana placed fourth behind Mauritius (57), Nigeria (85) and Cameroon (96) in the top five which was completed by neighbours Ivory Coast (99).

The ranking was computed based on an average of three years of surveys taken by Gallup between 2016 and 2018 and include factors such as gross domestic product, social support from friends and family, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perceived corruption and recent emotions of citizens — both happy and sad.

Undertaken by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s, the World Happiness Report ranks countries according to their scores for things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network in a statement said: The data “offer the world’s governments and individuals the opportunity to rethink public policies as well as individual life choices, to raise happiness and well-being,”

“We are in an era of rising tensions and negative emotions and these findings point to underlying challenges that need to be addressed,’’ he added.