Saudis walks past a castle made from mud during the Janadriyah festival of Heritage and Culture held in the village of Al-Thamama, 40 kilometres north of the capital Riyadh, in this April 10, 2013 file photo.

Saudi Arabia has been ranked as the world’s third happiest nation and ninth as the hopeful country with the economic future. The Kingdom is also ranked sixth concerning this year being a better one. The ranking is based on a poll conducted by Wayne Gallup International for Independent Research.

According to the poll, the happiest country in the world is Colombia, and the unhappiest country is Iraq.

Bangladesh, China, Nigeria, Fiji and Morocco are the most hopeful nations, while Italy is the least hopeful.

The findings are from a new study conducted by WIN/Gallup International Association that interviewed people from 68 countries.

According to the Happiness International Index based on the poll findings, Colombia is the happiest country at 85 percent, Fiji second at 82 percent, Saudi Arabia third at 82 percent, Azerbaijan fourth at 81 percent and fifth Vietnam at 80 percent.

Argentina occupies sixth place at 79 percent, with Panama following at 79 percent, Mexico at 76 percent, Ecuador at 75 percent, and China and Iceland at 74 percent each ranking 10th place.

The Kingdom has the happiest people at 86 percent, Iraq 12 percent in the index, Tunisia seven percent, Greece 9 percent, Afghanistan 14 percent and Palestine 15 percent.

The economic index put Nigeria first at 61 percent in terms of people feeling good about their economic future, Bangladesh at 60 percent, China in third place at 53 percent, Pakistan at 50 percent, India at 44 percent, Morocco at 44 percent, Fiji at 39 percent and Saudi Arabia in ninth place at 32 percent, and Argentina in 10th place.

The countries least economically hopeful for this year were Argentina at 65 percent, Austria at 49 percent, Italy at 47 percent and Hong Kong at 45 percent.

In the expectations and hopes index, Bangladesh came at the forefront of the standings with 74 percent and then China with 70 percent third Nigeria at 68 percent fourth Fiji at 61 percent Morocco fifth at 57 percent, Saudi Arabia at sixth with 56 percent, while Vietnam seventh with 55 percent, Argentina eighth with 53 percent, ahead of India with 47 percent and Pakistan with 42 percent.

The countries with least expectations and hope were Italy ranked first by 37 percent, second Iraq at 35 percent, Greece at 28 percent, followed by Palestine at 27 percent while Bosnia and Herzegovina 23 percent, Lebanon 20 percent, Tunisia 12 percent, followed by Afghanistan with 11 percent, Belgium 11 percent, and Mexico with 11 percent.

The Gallup research revealed 66 percent of respondents around the world feel joy and happiness about their lives in 2015, while 23 percent of the respondents said their feelings crossed between happiness and not, while 10 percent indicated dissatisfaction with life. The number of people happy in 2015 went down by 4 percent from the previous year, which amounted to 70 percent.

The poll found that 45 percent of the world population is optimistic about the global economic outlook for the current year, the pessimists accounted for 22 percent, while 28 percent noted that the economy will maintain the same pace.

The overall outlook for the current year was optimistic at 54 percent, while over 16 percent said they were pessimistic about this year.

About 65,000 people from 68 countries around the world were questioned in this poll.

Jean-Marc Leger, president of WIN/Gallup International Association, said: “2015 has been a tumultuous year for many across the globe, despite that the world remains largely a happy place. 45 percent of the world is optimistic regarding the economic outlook for 2016, up by 3 percent compared to last year.”

WIN/Gallup International grouped the world into three tiers: Prosperous (the G7); Emerging (G20 excluding the original G7) and Aspiring (all others) nations.

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