TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The new edition of the World Happiness Report puts Taiwan at No. 27 in the world, describing it as the happiest country in East Asia.

Taiwan finished ahead of Singapore, South Korea, and Japan on a list dominated by Scandinavian and European countries. Finland finished first for the eighth year in a row, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

The three East Asian countries ranked closest to Taiwan were Singapore at No. 34, Vietnam at No. 46, and Thailand at No. 49, per Liberty Times. In Asia as a whole, only Israel at No. 8 and the United Arab Emirates at No. 21 preceded Taiwan. Afghanistan closed off the list of 147 countries and territories.

Countries were rated based on factors including social support, gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, perceptions of corruption, positive and negative emotions.

The list was published by the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford in cooperation with pollster Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.