The UN-sponsored index, based on data from 2020-2022, predates the government’s divisive judicial overhaul plan. The list is again topped by Finland, with the US 15th, Britain 19th and France 21st.Israelis are the happiest they’ve been in over a decade, the World Happiness rankings revealed on Monday, though the findings predated the widespread social upheaval over the government’s judicial overhaul program and therefore could not take it into account.Israel’s 2023 fourth-place ranking, up from ninth last year, is its highest position since the UN-sponsored index began publication in 2012.The list crowned Finland as the world’s happiest country for the sixth year running, with Afghanistan again the unhappiest, closely succeeded by Lebanon.The World Happiness Report, now in its 11th year, is based on residents of 137 countries’ own assessment of their situation, as well as economic and social data.It assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data collected over a three-year period.The survey utilized data collected between 2020 and 2022.Anat Fanti, a social science researcher at Bar Ilan University, said that if the survey had been conducted after the judicial overhaul was revealed, “its results would be different and Israel’s ranking would have been harmed.”She told the Ynet news outlet that the ranking could be explained by a strong economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic, as well as “the level of hope and optimism among some populations as a result of the broad unity government” led by former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, though that government was despised by many in the right wing.

The latest edition of the index was the first to rank Russia and Ukraine since the outbreak of war in February 2022. In the 2023 report, Russia rose ten places to 70th, and Ukraine increased from 98th in 2022 to 92nd in 2023.The United States improved by one place to 15th, while France dropped one spot to 21st. The Palestinian Authority was placed 99th….