Malaysia as a whole scored 6.48, which is a “Happy” level, said the chief statistician, Uzir Mahidin.
According to the findings, Labuan recorded a score of 9.29 which is “Very Happy”, 11 states including the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya were at a “Happy” level, while Melaka and Selangor were “Moderately Happy”.
The study was carried out to measure the level of happiness of the Malaysian population from the physical, social, emotional and spiritual aspects.
The scores for the happiness level were categorised in five bands: 0-2 is “Very Unhappy”; 2-4 “Unhappy”; 4-6 “Moderately Happy”; 6-8 “Happy” and 8-10 “Very Happy”.
“Overall, Malaysians are generally happy even though the country was facing challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis, in the implementation year of the MHI Survey 2021,” said Uzir after launching the survey report here today.
The study, conducted between September and November, involved 42,446 survey respondents and was developed based on international manuals, among others, the World Happiness Report and the Human Development Index.
Uzir said the MHI report contained 73 indicators grouped into 13 components: family; housing and environment; social participation; health; communication facilities; education; working life; income; public safety; use of time; religion and spiritual; culture; and emotional experience.
He said analysis by components showed that the highest index score recorded was the family component (7.23), followed by religion and spiritual (7.21) and health (6.75).
The MHI score was at the “Happy” level at urban areas (6.46) and rural areas (6.54) in Malaysia.
Uzir said for the urban strata, the states that recorded the highest score were Labuan (9.21), followed by Kuala Lumpur (7.77) and Putrajaya (7.28).
In the rural strata, the states with the highest score were Labuan (9.50), Terengganu (7.14) and Perlis (7.07).
Analysis by gender showed that females logged a score of 6.49 while males scored 6.46.
Uzir said based on the survey, the scores recorded by citizens (6.49) and non-citizens (6.32) were not that different.
“This means that we accept non-citizens as part of the country and they can also live a life just like citizens of our country.
“This is an interesting finding that we can show to other countries – that in terms of the Happiness Index, there is no element of discrimination among citizens and non-citizens,” he said.
At the international level, Uzir said Malaysia ranked 79th out of 146 countries surveyed in the 2021 World Happiness Report, with a score of 5.384.