The World Happiness Report (WHR) was first released on April 2 2012 in the report 'Defining the New Economic Paradigm: Report of the High-Level Meeting on Well-Being and Happiness.' On June 28, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281 declaring March 20 as the International Day of Happiness. Currently WHR is released annually as part of the International Day of Happiness celebrations.
WHR 2022 captures the country's average happiness level during 2019-2021. The survey was conducted by asking respondents about their life satisfaction in the past year ranging from 0 (very bad) to 10 (very good). The survey was conducted by Gallup World Poll to +/- 1000 respondents in each country. Life satisfaction scores were then compared with six multi-dimensional indicators. The six indicators are gross domestic product per capita, social assistance received, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and respondents' views on the level of corruption in their country.
WHR 2022 is quite special because it can describe the average happiness during the COVID-19 crisis period that has hit the world. In WHR 2022, researchers paid special attention to aspects such as specific daily emotions (components of positive and negative affect) to better track how COVID-19 has changed various aspects of human life in recent years.
Indonesia is in 87th position, which can be called a country with a moderate level of happiness, which tends to be low. The factor that most determines Indonesia's low ranking is citizens' perception of corruption, where Indonesia's score is 0.05 (only 1/10 of Singapore's score of 0.59). However, Indonesia shows the world's highest score (0.47) in terms of generosity, much higher than Singapore (0.16).
The Essence of Happiness in Islam
Happiness in Islam basically refers to one of the Arabic words sa'adah, formed from the syllable sa'ada, which means happy. In the tradition of Sufism, Imam al-Ghazali stated in his work Ihya Ulumiddin, happiness is a spiritual condition, when humans are at the peak of piety. Happiness is a pleasure from Allah SWT, and the peak of human happiness is if he succeeds in reaching the stage of makrifat, namely having known Allah SWT.
In Islamic economics, happiness is also a very important aspect because it is considered to reflect the achievement of falah in the world. Falah itself is success in the world and the afterlife which includes multidimensionality. Not only economic, but also health, social, freedom, intellectual and so on.
Comparative analysis of the happiness levels of citizens of one country with those of other countries is not a simple matter. However, WHR compilers can be a vehicle for measuring how one of the falah components can be reflected in the numbers.
Through WHR, every country (government and society) is expected to be able to improve the direction of development in the future in order to realize a prosperous country life.