Ghana has been ranked as the 120th happiest place to live in the world out of a list of one hundred and forty-three countries.

In data published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, UK in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the document released a combination of the global outlook and country-specific rankings on national happiness of the population as a whole by measuring the average life evaluations over the three preceding years, 2021-2023.

The report notes that since 2006-10 there has been a large increase in the inequality of happiness in every region of the world except Europe. And it has increased especially for the old.

The biggest increase is in Sub-Saharan Africa with Ghana scoring 120 out of 142 countries on the index.

This indicates a decline in reported levels of happiness or life satisfaction among Ghanaians compared to 2023. In 2023, Ghana had a happiness index score of 4.605 and was ranked 107 out of 137 countries. However, in 2024, the happiness index score decreased to 4.289, and Ghana's ranking dropped to 120 out of 143 countries.

The report also found the West African country as having persons falling within the age category of 60+ being the least happy people in the country as compared to persons living below the age 30.

The report explained that national average life evaluations and rankings were arrived at based on six key variables: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.

“In most countries, life satisfaction drops gradually from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Globally, young people aged 15-24 still report higher life satisfaction than older adults. But this gap is narrowing in Western Europe and recently reversed in North America due to falling life satisfaction among the young."

Conversely, in Sub-Saharan Africa life satisfaction has increased among the young” the report stated.

It however noted that the top-rated happiest countries identified in its previous reports remain largely unchanged with Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweeden and Israel taking a slot on the top five spots of the index. But it is worth noting that based on the latest report “the top countries no longer include any of the largest countries.

In the top ten countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million. In the whole of the top twenty, only Canada and the United Kingdom have populations over 30 million” the document stated.