Nation Report

World Database of Happiness , collection Happiness in Nations

Happiness in South Africa (ZA)

Current happiness: place on rank lists of Happiness in nations 2010-2018

Happiness	Average Happiness	Happy Life Years	Inequality of Happiness	Inequality Adjusted Happiness
Possible ranges	0 - 10	0 - 100	0 - 3.5	0 - 100
Highest score	8.3 Mexico	66.8 Switzerland	1.41 Netherlands	73 Denmark
South Africa	6.0	34.1	2.44	47
Lowest score	3.4 Central African Republic	18.8 Central African Republic	3.16 Egypt	26 Egypt

All above happiness variants are based on responses to a survey question like: “Taking all together, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with your life-as-a-whole these days?”. Combined question types 10-step numeral life satisfaction and 11-step numeral life satisfaction.

Trend based on happiness as measured with a survey question like: "Overall, how satisfied are you with your present life? - very satisfied - fairly satisfied - neither satisfied nor dissatisfied - fairly dissatisfied - very dissatisfied very satisfied = 5 ..... very dissatisfied = 1". Question type 5-step verbal LifeSatisfaction (code 121D). This measure may differ from the measure used in the above ranking of current happiness.
Other measures of happiness used in this nation may produce a different pattern over time. Check the complete overview of distributional findings on happiness in the general public of South Africa.

Cite as: R. Veenhoven, Happiness in South Africa (ZA), World Database of Happiness, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Viewed on 2021-04-18 at worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl .