The first World Happiness Report was published in:

The first World Happiness Report was published in April 2012, in support of a United Nations high-level meeting on "Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm", held in New York. It was organised at the initiative of the Kingdom of Bhutan, which is known for measuring national progress through "Gross National Happiness" (GNH) rather than only Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

About the World Happiness Report:

• It is published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), together with the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford and the Gallup World Poll, which provides the data.
• It is now published every year around 20 March, the International Day of Happiness.
• Its editors have included John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey Sachs.

Countries are ranked by how people rate their own lives on a scale of 0 to 10 (the "Cantril ladder"), and the report explains the rankings using six factors: GDP per person, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

Finland has topped the rankings every year since 2018, and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway) are usually near the top.

Afghanistan has been ranked at or near the bottom in recent years.

India usually ranks low in the report, generally in the bottom third of the countries surveyed.

International Day of Happiness:

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in July 2012 declaring 20 March as the International Day of Happiness. It was first celebrated in 2013.

The resolution was introduced by Bhutan, which had declared that happiness should be a basic goal of development.

Bhutan's Gross National Happiness idea was introduced by its fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in the 1970s.

Why not the other options?

• ✗2006, 2015 and 2020 are not the year of the first World Happiness Report.