Jamaicans the happiest people in the Caribbean

It’s official! Jamaicans are the happiest people in the Caribbean.

That’s according to the first United Nations-commissioned World Happiness Report, which also ranked Jamaica 40 out of 156 nations worldwide.

Edited by economists Jeffrey Sachs, John Helliwell and Richard Layard, and released recently, the report pointed to the increased importance of happiness in economic and sustainable development.

The findings indicate that Jamaica was most negatively affected by corruption and lacklustre growth.

When those measures are discounted, however, the islanders rank among the world’s happiest people.

Denmark, Finland, Norway, Netherlands and Canada scored the highest on the index.

Togo ranked the lowest.

Apart from Jamaica, the happiest countries in the region were found to be Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and Brazil.

The report found that the Dominican Republic and Haiti were the least happy regionally.