Ukraine & Palestine Happier Than Kenya Amid Wars- Report

People living in Ukraine and Palestine are happier than people in Kenya despite ongoing conflicts with Russia and Israel respectively, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report.

Palestine was ranked at position 103, while Ukraine followed closely placed at 105, whereas Kenya was ranked at position 114 out of the 143 nations surveyed.

Happiness levels were assessed based on individuals’ self-evaluations of their lives, as the more stable measure of the quality of people’s lives.

Six key variables were used in explaining the life evaluations, namely GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, availability of social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and absence of corruption.

Kenya dropped from its previous position 111 in the 2023 report.

The survey categorizes young people as those aged under 30, the lower middle as those aged between 30 and 44, the upper middle as those between 45 and 59, and the elderly are identified as individuals aged 60 years and above.

Countries Facing War Beat Kenya in Happiness Level

In terms of specific demographics, Palestine’s happiness of the young people (below 30 years) was ranked at 102, the lower-middle age at 105, the upper-middle at 109, and the elderly at 99.

Ukraine holds position 82 position for the young age category, 90th for the lower middle age group, 110th for the upper middle age group, and 115th for the elderly population in the breakdown by age groups.

In Kenya, the rankings for different age groups places the young as the happiest at position 10 and the upper middle age group at 123.

The lower middle age group and the elderly are the least happy in the country having ranked at 119 globally.

In Africa, Kenya ranks ahead of its neighbors Uganda (117), Egypt (127), Ethiopia (130), Tanzania (131) and Malawi at 136.

According to the report, Kenya’s happiness levels witnessed a drop for the first time since 2018.

This marked a departure from Kenya’s trend of improvement over the past five years.

The last seen slip occurred in 2018, when Kenya’s happiness index dropped to 124 from its 2017 ranking of 112.

Also read: 8 Reasons Why Kenyans Are Taking Loans

Other Findings in the Report 

On the global scale, Finland maintains its position as the world’s happiest nation, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Israel.

According to the report, the world’s least happy countries are Congo (139), Sierra Leone (140), Lesotho (141), Lebanon (142), and Afghanistan (143).

The report further states that both social support and loneliness affect happiness, with social support usually having the larger effect.

“New global social connections data show feelings of social support to have been more than twice as prevalent as loneliness in 2022,” the report said.

“Social interactions add to happiness, with their effects flowing through increases in social support and reductions in loneliness.”

Also Read: Skipping Meals, Selling Assets and Other Ways Kenyans are Surviving 2024; Report

High Cost of Living in Kenya Can Cause Unhappiness

The report comes at a time when Kenyans are grappling with a high cost of living and increased taxation by the government.

Recently, President William Ruto signed the Affordable Housing Act 2024 into law.

Following its approval into law, both salaried and non-salaried Kenyans are deducted 1.5 per cent of their monthly income to the Affordable Housing Fund.

In 2023, the government also raised contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and made other adjustments to existing taxes after a ruling that upheld the NSSF Act 2013.

A recent report by Tala revealed that Kenyans are selling off their assets and skipping meals to cut down on expenses as they struggle to make ends meet in 2024.