Claim: According to a UN-sponsored survey, one of Ghana’s online news platforms has reported that Nigerians and Burkinabes are happier than Ghanaians.
Verdict: True! Our findings reveal that the Gallup World Polls, which surveys and publishes the World Happiness Report, places Nigeria and Burkina Faso above Ghana’s ranking of the world’s happiest and least happy countries.
Full Text
A publication on Ghanaweb.com about the World Happiness Index has become controversial online. The publication refers to a survey that was said to have been conducted by Gallup World Polls, an organisation believed to have the support of the United Nations. The claim suggests that Nigerians and Burkinabes are more happy than Ghanaians.
In that article, Libya is ranked highest among all African countries in terms of the happiness of its nationals.
In one of its paragraphs, the article said, “In Africa, Libya ranked as the happiest on the continent while Lesotho was the least happy on the continent and third worst overall.”
Ghana’s position on the table means countries such as Namibia, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, and Gabon were all ranked as happier.”
It went viral when the usual ‘Ghana-Naija’ banter ensued on social media. This banter comes in many forms, be it in sports, education, literacy, proficiency in speaking English, etc.
Some of the comments under the post doubted the report’s validity, saying Burkina Faso, a country that recently suffered a coup d’etat, could not have its citizens happier than Ghanaians.
This report ignited a new debate about which country’s citizens are happier. DUBAWA, therefore, decided to verify the authenticity of the report.
Verification
The Gallup World Poll is responsible for surveying and reporting on patterns and rankings of happiness among people of various countries. According to the official website for publication of the report, “The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board. The report is produced under the editorial control of the WHR Editorial Board.”
Gallup also runs the Global Law and Order Report, the Rating World Leaders Report, and the Global Emotions Report. These have made them a world-acclaimed body for surveys and reports.
Their expansive report showcases happiness patterns on various grounds, such as age, gender, and occupation.
According to Visual Capitals under ‘A Map of Global Happiness by Country in 2024’, ‘The Gallup World Poll surveys approximately 1,000 respondents in nearly every country on various issues, one of which is to evaluate their current life on a scale from 0–10.
The World Happiness Report then averages the score from life evaluations per country over three years (2021–2023 for this year’s edition) and ranks from highest to lowest.
The full report published by Gallup can be read and downloaded here.
According to the report published by Visual Capitals, Finland remains the happiest country in the world, while Libya takes the first spot in Africa, falling to a rank of 66 globally. Mauritius follows Libya on the continent and at number 70 in the world.
South Africa, Algeria, Congo, and Mozambique follow in that order, with Ghana clamping to the 120th globally and only making the 23rd position in Africa.
The report places Nigeria and Burkina Faso ahead of Ghana as the two countries fall ito the 102nd and 110th positions worldwide.
Below are two shots from the Visual Capitals’ website with rankings showing Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Ghana in various positions.
Conclusion
Through this researcher’s findings, we discovered that the claim is valid. Data from Gallup World Polls and Visual Capitals show that Nigerians and Burkinabes are happier than Ghanaians.
This report was produced under the DUBAWA’s Non-Urban Journalists Mentorship project to promote a culture of truth and verification in non-urban newsrooms in Ghana with support from the US Embassy in Ghana.
