PUTRAJAYA: Labuan, Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur were the happiest federal territories and states in the country last year, according to the first ever Malaysia Happiness Index (MHI).
Melaka and Selangor were the two states at the bottom of the list with the latter obtaining the lowest index score of 5.47 in the Department of Statistics Malaysia's (DoSM) MHI for the year 2021.
Chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, however, said that Malaysia's overall performance in 2021 was happy when the country scored 6.48 in the MHI.
He explained that the country and states that obtained a index score of between 8.01 and 10 is categorised as "very happy", followed by "happy" (index score between 6.01 and 8.00), "moderately level" (index score of between 4.01 and 6.00), "unhappy" (index score of between 2.01 and 4.00) and "very unhappy" (index score of 2.00 and below).
The outcome of the survey is based on 73 indicators under 13 components namely family, housing and environment, social participation, health, communication, education, working life, income, public safety, time use, religion and spiritual, culture and emotional experiences.
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