The Netherlands is once again in fifth place in the World Happiness Index, a ranking compiled from Gallup surveys by a group of academics united in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Finland tops the ranking for the sixth year in a row, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Israel. Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sierra Leone make up the bottom three of the list of 137 countries.

The survey is based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, but reflects six variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.

This year the survey focused on how Covid-19 affected the distribution of well-being and found life evaluations to be ‘remarkably resilient’, with global averages in the coronavirus years just as high as those in the pre-pandemic period.

The report also looked at the ‘happiness gap’, the difference in happiness between the more and less happy halves of the population. Afghanistan, where everyone is unhappy, topped this listing, but the Netherlands was in second place, followed by Finland, Iceland and Belgium.