The happiest countries in the world

For the seventh year in a row, Finland has landed the top spot on the World Happiness Report’s annual ranking of the happiest countries in the world

Countries are ranked according to self-assessed life evaluations and answers to the Cantril ladder question. This question asks over 100,000 respondents to think of a ladder with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst being a zero and then rate their current lives on that scale

The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, which publishes the report, says that in addition to using the Cantril ladder question, the report also considers the following six variables in the more than 130 countries ranked in the report:

Social Support- This is the best predictor of happiness. If people feel like they have at least one person they can reach out to when they’re in need, they are more likely to feel secure
GDP per capita- This is how much a country produces divided by its population
A healthy life expectancy- The researchers look at the physical and mental health of a country’s population
Freedom to make life choices- This plays a key role in how happy one feels
Generosity- This factor looks at how charitable a country’s people are
Perception of Corruption- How corrupt are a country’s government and business policies? This factor looks at both, and researchers use what they find to estimate happiness levels

Headlines

The happiest countries are in Northern Europe, with Finland topping the list again (7.7 out of 10). The UK was 20^th (one down from 2023) with a score of 6.75
The least happy countries are those struggling with conflict and poverty, with Afghanistan scoring the lowest (1.7)
Lithuania tops the happiness list for younger people (under 30), while Denmark is the happiest nation for older people (over 60). The UK was 32nd and 20th respectively
Serbia and Bulgaria saw the biggest increases in happiness
Levels of kindness have increased from pre-pandemic levels, especially with Millennials and Gen Z

While this year’s top ten countries on the list mainly remained unchanged, the top 20 saw a bit more action. Costa Rica and Kuwait jumped to 12th and 13th place, respectively, while the United States and Germany fell off the top 20 completely. The U.S. dropped from No. 15 to No. 23 this year.

Of the top ten happiest countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million, and of the top 20, only Canada and the U.K. have populations over 30 million

No. 1 happiest country in the world: Finland

Finland took the No. 1 spot on the list with a score of 7.741. According to Frank Martela, a Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher, Finnish people are happy because they have a strong sense of community and relatedness, do good deeds for other people, and find a clear purpose for themselves

“It would be more accurate to say that Finland is the country that has the least unhappy people in the world,” Martela says

Finland outperforms the average country in education, work-life balance, environment quality, social connections, safety and life satisfaction, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Better Life Index

Life expectancy at birth in Finland is around 82 years, 85 for women and 79 for men.

The Finnish people’s strong sense of community is further proven by the OECD Better Life Index, which states that 96% of people believe they know someone they can rely on in their time of need

Top 10 happiest countries in the world