Question:
Which is the happiest country as per the 2019 World Happiness Index?
Which is the happiest country as per the 2019 World Happiness Index?
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Nordic countries often dominate happiness rankings due to strong welfare systems, equality, and high quality of life.
Updated On: Jul 15, 2026
- Finland
- Denmark
- Norway
- Sweden
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The Correct Option is A
Approach Solution - 1
In the 2019 World Happiness Report, published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Finland ranked as the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row. The ranking is based on factors such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perception of corruption.
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were also in the top 10, but Finland maintained the highest overall score.
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were also in the top 10, but Finland maintained the highest overall score.
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Approach Solution -2
The question asks which country topped the 2019 World Happiness Index. Let's evaluate each option.
- Finland: Finland was ranked first in the 2019 World Happiness Report, brought out by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, on the strength of high scores in areas such as social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make choices and low corruption. This was its second year in a row at the top.
- Denmark: Denmark placed second in 2019, close behind Finland but not the highest scorer that year.
- Norway: Norway had topped the ranking in 2017 but slipped to third place by 2019.
- Sweden: Sweden also featured among the top ten Nordic countries in 2019 but ranked well below Finland, Denmark and Norway.
Among all these Nordic nations, only Finland held the number one position in the 2019 report, which is what the question is asking about.
So the correct answer is Finland.
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Approach Solution -3
Since all four countries are Nordic nations that regularly appear near the top of this index, the way to settle this is to recall each one's actual rank position in 2019 specifically, rather than just their general reputation for high happiness scores.
- Finland: It held the number one position in the 2019 World Happiness Report, its second year running at the top, scoring well on social support, healthy life expectancy and low corruption.
- Denmark: It placed second that year, a strong finish but one rank below the top spot the question is asking about.
- Norway: Having led the rankings back in 2017, Norway had dropped to third place by 2019, so its earlier chart-topping year does not apply here.
- Sweden: It also ranked among the leading Nordic countries in 2019 but sat further down the list, behind Finland, Denmark and Norway.
Checking the specific 2019 rankings rather than general reputation confirms that Finland, and only Finland, was in first place that year.
So the correct answer is Finland.
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Top CLAT General Awareness Questions
- On the evening of the 10th, General Dyer arrived at Amritsar, and the Deputy-Commissioner handed over the civil power to him. He issued a proclamation by word of mouth that no meetings should be held. Two days later, after there had been no sort of riot, nor murder, General Dyer heard that a meeting was to be held at the Jallianwala Bagh. He proceeded there with about fifty troops, half British, half Indian, and a certain number of Ghurkas, armed with their kukris. The Jallianwala Bagh is an open space, half a mile square, which has one entry wide enough for three persons. The troops got in and lined up on a mound of debris. The walls, seven feet high, and the surrounding houses enclosed the people. There were, too, three alleys through which the people might have been able to pass. Within thirty seconds of the troops getting in, General Dyer gave orders to fire, and the crowd of people, estimated at anything from 5,000 to 20,000, who were sitting on the ground peacefully listening to the mob oratory, were fired on. The result of the troops’ fire into the mass of people we do not know. But we do know that Dyer’s own estimate of the casualties resulting from ten minutes continual individual firing, was 400 to 500 killed and 1,500 wounded. The people were not able to escape. They were people who had not offered any violence and who had not been warned. These people were shot down. After ten minutes, the ammunition was exhausted and the troops marched off, and they left 1,500 wounded there. There were men lying there for two days, dying of thirst, eating the ground, bleeding to death and nobody to look after them. Those who lived nearby came and carried away some of the wounded from the heap of dead and dying, but the unfortunate country people died there miserably of their wounds. This is what is done in 1919 in British India…
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[Col. Wedgwood, MP, speaking in the British Parliament, 22 December 1919] - On 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics, we will have equality and in social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of democracy, which this Constituent Assembly has so laboriously built up.
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[Col. Wedgwood, MP, speaking in the British Parliament, 22 December 1919]
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