Iceland has been ranked number one on the Gay Happiness Index, scoring 79 out of a possible 100, while Uganda is bottom of the pile.
PlanetRomeo, a gay dating network, ranked nations of three criteria: life satisfaction, public behaviour and public opinion. Unsurprisingly, the Nordics performed well, with Norway, Denmark and Sweden completing the top four positions with scores of 77, 76 and 73 respectively. Uruguay, completing the top five, was tied with Sweden on 73 points.
PlanetRomeo said that there was huge diversity in Europe, with the “gay haven” of Scandinavia and the “gay drama” in the Balkans, noting that there was a great contrast between the Northwestern and Southeastern Europe.
While it was satisfied with improvements seen in North and South America and Southeast Asia, the dating network admitted that the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa were “depressing”, pointing out that “negative development” had also been recorded in places such as Turkey, Hungary and Russia.
The five nations with the biggest negative change in 2014 were Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kyrgyzstan, with the organistion blaming “tyrants” in these countries for promoting homophobic opinions.
PlanetRomeo quizzed 115,000 gay men from 127 nations and has already spoken of its plans to conduct a similar survey in the future.