Read the below statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Mark the correct options: Assertion (A): The Happiness Index includes political freedom and social support. Reason (R): The Index is published by the UNDP.

Correct — C. Assertion true. Read as the World Happiness Report (the stem says only "the Happiness Index"), the index explains national scores with factors that include social support and freedom to make life choices.

Reason false. The report is not a UNDP publication. Since 2024 it has been published by the Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. A true, R false.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A. — R is false: UNDP publishes the Human Development Report, not the happiness report. A false Reason cannot explain the Assertion, so this fails at the first check.
• (b)
  Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A. — R is false, so 'both true' cannot stand. The World Happiness Report comes from Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre with Gallup and the UN SDSN, not from UNDP.
• (d)
  A is false, but R is true. — A is true, not false: social support and freedom to make life choices are among the report's explanatory factors. And R, which this option calls true, is the false statement.

The World Happiness Report ranks countries by one number: how people rate their own lives on the Cantril ladder, 0 to 10, in the Gallup World Poll.

It then explains the differences with six factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

The first report appeared in April 2012. UNDP's flagship is a different index, the Human Development Index.

Key facts

• The World Happiness Report's explanatory factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
• Since 2024 it has been published by the Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
• Country rankings rest on a single life-evaluation question, the 0-to-10 Cantril ladder.
• UNDP publishes the Human Development Report and the Human Development Index.

Common traps

• Assuming any UN-linked index comes from UNDP, when the happiness report's UN partner is the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
• Marking A false because the report's variable is 'freedom to make life choices', not 'political freedom'. The key accepts the paraphrase.

No directly related past PYQ was found.