Bahrain named third happiest country in the Arab world

There are lots of reasons to be happy about living in Bahrain – from the wonderful beaches to the amazing art galleries.

And it seems lots of us are feeling joyful, as Bahrain has just been named the third happiest country in the Arab world.

The newly released report from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at the United Nations put Bahrain in 35th place overall.

It looks at factors like freedom, health problems, perceptions of corruption and the effect of COVID.

According to the report, “subjective well-being has been strikingly resilient in the face of COVID-19”, although the percentage of those feeling sad during a lot of the previous day grew by 2.9 percent overall.

It notes, “Although there were significant increases in average sadness and worry, we found that overall life evaluations, and happiness rankings, were surprisingly stable.

“The top countries before the pandemic remained the top countries in 2020, so there is little change in the overall rankings.

“The top countries already had higher levels of trust and lower levels of inequality, both of which helped them to keep death rates low and social cohesion high, and hence to maintain their favourable positions.”

Finland took the top spot, followed by Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Saudi Arabia came out top in the Arab world, ranking 21st overall, followed by the UAE in 27th place.