Mauritius, Libya, Ivory Coast and Benin are amongst the happiest countries in Africa, according to the UN’s World Happiness Index.
Mauritius has been named the happiest country in Africa by the World Happiness Report – and South Sudan ranked saddest.
The annual United Nations World Happiness Report ranks over 150 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be, according to their evaluations of their own lives.
Libya takes the No.2 spot in 2020’s study, followed by Ivory Coast in third place and Benin in fourth, Congo (Brazzaville) completea the top 5.
Eleven out of the top 20 happiest countries in Africa are in Western African, with the authors saying the happiest places are those where people feel a sense of belonging, and trust their fellow citizens and institutions.
This is the eighth World Happiness Report. Its central purpose was to review the science of measuring and understanding subjective well-being, and to use survey measures of life satisfaction to track the quality of lives as they are being lived in more than 150 countries.
This report focuses more specifically on
social environments for happiness, as reflected by the quality of personal social connections and social institutions.
The researchers asked people around the world to assess their own levels of happiness, as well as taking account of factors such as national income and levels of corruption.
This year’s report was compiled before the coronavirus pandemic.
Top 20 Happiest Countries in Africa, 2020
World Rank| Country | Score
49. Mauritius (6.101)
80. Libya (5.489)
85. Ivory Coast (5.233)
86. Benin (5.216)
88. Congo (Brazzaville) (5.194)
91. Ghana (5.148)
97. Morocco (5.095)
98. Cameroon (5.085)
100. Algeria (5.005)
101. Senegal (4.981)
102. Guinea (4.949)
103. Niger (4.910)
108. Gabon (4.829)
109. South Africa (4.814)
112. Burkina Faso (4.769)
113. Gambia (4.751)
114. Mali (4.729)
115. Nigeria (4.724)
120. Mozambique (4.624)
121. Kenya (4.583)
Top 20 Happiest Cities in Africa, 2020
1. Algiers — Algeria (5.781)
2. Niamey — Niger (5.676)
3. Port-Louis — Mauritius (5.616)
4. Tripoli — Libya (5.528)
5. Benghazi — Libya (5.508)
6. Johannesburg — South Africa (5.361)
7. Mogadishu — Somalia (5.304)
8. Freetown — Sierra Leone (5.293)
9. Accra — Ghana (5.267)
10. Cape Town — South Africa (5.265)
11. Windhoek — Namibia (5.262)
12. Dakar — Senegal (5.256)
13. Casablanca — Morocco (5.180)
14. Nairobi — Kenya (5.150)
15. Brazzaville — Congo Brazzaville (5.135)
16. Douala — Cameroon (5.124)
17. Cotonou — Benin (5.006)
18. Yaounde — Cameroon (4.993)
19. Conakry — Guinea (4.951)
20. Libreville — Gabon (4.899)
Top 20 Saddest Countries in Africa, 2020
Rank | Country | Score
23. Namibia (4.571)
22. Liberia (4.558)
22. Uganda (4.432)
21. Chad (4.423)
20. Tunisia (4.392)
19. Mauritania (4.375)
18. Congo (Kinshasa) (4.311)
17. Swaziland (4.308)
16. Comoros (4.289)
15. Togo (4.187)
14. Ethiopia (4.186)
13. Madagascar (4.166)
12. Egypt (4.151)
11. Sierra Leone (3.926)
10. Burundi (3.775)
9. Zambia (3.759)
8. Lesotho (3.653)
7. Malawi (3.538)
6. Botswana (3.479)
5. Tanzania (3.476)
4. Central African Republic (3.476)
3. Rwanda (3.312)
2. Zimbabwe (3.299)
1. South Sudan (2.817)
Top 20 Saddest Cities in Africa, 2020
20. Abidjan — Ivory Coast (4.847)
19. Ouagadougou — Burkina Faso (4.814)
18. Bamako — Mali (4.662)
17. Alexandria — Egypt (4.660)
16. Kinshasa — Congo DR (Kinshasa) (4.622)
15. Nouakchott — Mauritania (4.607)
14. Tunis — Tunisia (4.456)
13. Gaborone — Botswana (4.442)
12. Lome — Togo (4.441)
11. Harare — Zimbabwe (4.355)
10. Antananarivo — Madagascar (4.348)
9. Monrovia — Liberia (4.291)
8. Khartoum — Sudan (4.139)
7. Kumasi — Ghana (4.133)
6. Kigali — Rwanda (4.126)
5. Cairo — Egypt (4.088)
4. Bangui — CAR (4.025)
3. Maseru — Lesotho (4.023)
2. Dar es Salaam — Tanzania (3.961)
1. Juba — South Sudan (3.866)
Methodology
The rankings of country happiness are based
this year on the pooled results from Gallup
World Poll surveys from 2017-2019 and continue to show both change and stability. The top
countries tend to have high values for most
of the key variables that have been found to
support well-being, including income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity, to such a degree that year to year changes in the top rankings are to be expected.
