Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Kingdom has advanced to the 27th place globally and 2nd in the Arab world out of 156 countries covered in the World Happiness Report 2020 issued by the UN annually to mark the World Happiness Day, which falls on March 20 every year, Saudi Press Agency said on Saturday.

The report measures the happiness, entertainment and quality of life indices. This is the eighth report since the launch of the index, which witnessed progress in the Kingdom to the 27th place, after ranking 28th in 2019 and 33rd in 2018.

The report evaluated 186 world cities in terms of entertainment and happiness. In this connection, Madinah ranked 46th, Jeddah 59th, Riyadh 62nd and Makkah 65th.

The report expects the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Madinah to be in the list of the Best Twenty Cities in The World in future, and Makkah will reach the 35th place.

The Spokesman of the Quality of Life Program Mazrou’ Bin Salah Al-Mazrou’ said that the Kingdom ranking 27th is deemed an important indication of the efforts being exerted by the Kingdom to achieve happiness and social welfare. All the initiatives of the Quality of Life Program, and the projects of the various ministries, commissions and authorities have placed the citizen’s happiness as their main goal.

He added: “Advancing one place means a lot, as the world is also progressing. We are not alone in the race. The Kingdom has superseded important countries at the global level, like Spain, Italy and South Korea.

“We’ll exert more efforts to make the Kingdom the pioneering country in terms of quality of life worldwide. This is part of a big movement coming under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and other projects launched by the Saudi leadership recently.”

Al-Mazrou’ further said: “This development in the domain of happiness and a prosperous life, coincide with the state’s efforts today to counter the novel coronavirus pandemic globally.

“These come within the context of what is being asserted by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, that the society’s happiness and welfare is at the top of priorities in the Kingdom.”

The World Happiness Report is one of the indices adopted by the Quality of Life Program and is one of the programs for achieving the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and in laying down its plans and initiatives, along with other global indices.