EDITORIAL: The World Happiness Report 2025, released the other day by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, has declared Finland with its strong public welfare system as the happiest country for the eighth consecutive year; and Afghanistan, beset by various humanitarian challenges, continues to be ranked as the unhappiest place.
Notably, the report ranks countries on the bases of three-year average of people’s self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, per capita GDP, local support, healthcare and life expectancy, freedom (of expression?) and generosity, and corruption.
Pakistan fares poorly on majority of these assessment criteria, yet it gets placed at 109th spot among 147 countries. In fact, after Nepal ranked 91st we are the happiest people in whole of South Asia, nine places above India at number 118, while Sri Lanka lags behind at 133rd position, and Bangladesh at 134th.
According to this report, among unhappy people attracted by the extremes of the political spectrum, low-trust people are more often found on the far-right, which is so true at least in the case of India.
However, its focus this year being on the impact of caring and sharing on people’s happiness, the report goes on to note that trends towards increased loneliness are most evident among young persons, and that for most people in the world family is a source of joy and support.
Hence, couples who live with at least one child and those who live with children and members of their extended family have especially high average life satisfaction.
n Pakistan, as well as other South Asian countries, the idea of nuclear family still has not caught on. Most households in this part of the world are multi-generational – said to be more than half of them in Pakistan and India.
Caring by the family, without a doubt, makes people feel good. But there are other contentment-related factors that generally remain unrecognised. According to authors of the present report, new evidence indicates that engaging in acts of generosity and believing in the kindness of others are “significant predictors of happiness, even more so than earning a higher salary.”
That seems to be the secret of our people’s sense of well-being despite all the odds. Pakistanis are one of the most generous peoples when it comes to helping others in need.
Social welfare organisations, like the Edhi Foundation, and several hospitals providing free of cost quality treatment to those who can ill-afford, are supported by public philanthropy.
Other forms of charitable giving and kindness are also common, especially in Karachi, including provision of food not only in designated centres; mobile soup kitchens also go to various localities to feed labourers as well as families struggling with poverty.
Such caring and sharing may well be the reason Pakistanis get a better rating on the happiness quotient than almost all other South Asian nations. It could also be reflective of our people’s low expectations, which is not nice.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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