Despite ongoing conflicts, Israelis continue to report high levels of happiness.
The annual World Happiness Report has once again been released, placing Israel in a respectable eighth place, with most citizens reporting that they are happy living in the country.
The index is published each year by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. According to the latest rankings, Scandinavian countries occupy the top spots.
Residents of Finland are the happiest in the world, followed by those in Iceland. Denmark ranks third. In a surprise, Costa Rica takes fourth place-the highest ranking ever for a Latin American country.
Fifth place goes to Sweden, followed by Norway. The Netherlands ranks seventh, with Israel right after it in eighth place.
Israel is the only country from the Middle East to make it into the top twenty happiest countries in the world. Rounding out the top ten are Luxembourg and Switzerland.
At the bottom of the list is Afghanistan, ranked 147th as the least happy country in the world.
Just above it is Sierra Leone in 146th place, while Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Botswana also appear near the bottom of the global happiness rankings.
The United States ranks 23rd in the annual index, while Canada is in 25th place and the United Kingdom is ranked 29th.