Comparing results from the World Happiness Report of 2020, which surveyed over 1,000 people in each of the over 160 countries researched, with Oxford University’s “Stringency Index”, the group found the top 10 happiest countries were in the bottom 25% in terms of stringency when it came to managing the spread of Covid-19.

The “Stringency Index” is a scale from 1-100 derived by assessing the Covid-19 restrictions in 138 countries, with 100 being the most strict.

Malaysia, which was the 28th strictest country in the world according to this metric, ranked 79th in happiness.

In comparison, the top four happiest countries, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland and Iceland, ranked 124th, 117th, 121st and 129th on the “Stringency Index”, respectively.

The authors of the Tracking Happiness study stated that while a lenient response to the pandemic may actually have a positive effect on a country’s happiness, there was not enough evidence to point to a definitive correlation.

This finding mirrors an earlier data analysis from the Global Labor Organization, which found that the more stringent a country’s stay-at-home regulations were, the greater the negative effect on that country’s happiness levels.

However, according to the World Happiness Report, the pandemic as a whole did not have a significant impact on respondents’ happiness, with rankings remaining more or less the same compared to pre-pandemic renditions of the report.

The authors noted that for some, periods of restrictions contributed to improved mental health as they took the opportunity to learn new skills and hobbies.

More information on their methodology and the study can be found here.