A young orphaned boy standing at St. Theresa Cathedral Church in Juba, still looking unhappy. Photo: Getty Images

South Sudanese have been ranked as the unhappiest people in the world, in the 2019 World Happiness Report.

The report, which was released today, ranked 156 countries by happiness levels, based on factors such as life expectancy, social support, and corruption.

Finland took the top spot for two years in a row beating Denmark that came second.

The top five countries include Norway, Iceland, and the Netherlands that came fifth in the ranking.

However, South Sudan came at the bottom as a country with the most unhappy citizens in the world with a score of just 2.853.

The bottom 10 countries also include the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana, Haiti, and Zimbabwe.

Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Copenhagen-based Happiness Research Institute, says “the five Nordic countries that reliably rank high in the index are doing something right in terms of creating good conditions for good lives.”

He said the happiness revealed in the survey derives from healthy amounts of both personal freedom and social security that outweigh residents having to pay ‘some of the highest taxes in the world.

All the top countries tend to have high values for all six of the key variables that have been found to support well-being: income, health, life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust, and generosity.

The World Happiness Report is released every year on the International Day of happiness which is celebrated annually on March 20th.

This year’s day is being marked under the theme “Happier Together.”