In honor of International Happiness Day on March 20, the World Hapiness Report is invariably presented each year. A ranking of countries where people are the happiest in the world. Ambition for a happy life? These are the countries to be in.
World Hapiness Report, the annual report of the happiest countries marking the United Nations International Day of Happiness on March 20, is a collaboration between Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an editorial board. Residents from more than 140 countries participated in the study, completing a survey based on their average life ratings over the previous three years, in this case 2021 to 2023. From this rolled a ranking of countries based on happiness.
The report characterizes six key variables to help explain life assessments: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
Finland is the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row. The land of the northern lights has a lot going for it when it comes to the right social conditions for happiness, such as free health care and education, trust in the government and little corruption.
"And you discover that Finland is pretty rich in all those things, like wallets that are returned when they fall in the street, people helping each other day in and day out, very high quality and universally distributed health and educational opportunities - so everyone comes out more or less equal,'' said John Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, and one of the founders of the World Happiness Report.
Finnish neighbors could also count on a spot in the top 10, with Denmark (No. 2), Iceland (No. 3) and Sweden (No. 4) in the top five, and Norway (No. 7) life in northern Europe is one full of happiness.
Israel (No. 5), the Netherlands (No. 6), Luxembourg (No. 8), Switzerland (No. 9) and Australia (No. 10) complete the top 10. The Netherlands drops one spot in the rankings and Israel fills the fifth spot, despite current tensions. The researchers explain that the list was based on the average of three years, 2021 to 2023, so one year's events do not directly affect happiness ratings.
Noteworthy is the decline in happiness among young people. For example, happiness among young people has fallen sharply in North America, meaning they are now less happy than older people. Those low scores resulted in the United States being pushed out of the top 20 list for the first time since the report was published in 2012.
The United States (No. 23) and Germany (No. 24) fell outside the top 20, partly because of the rise in happiness in other countries - especially the Czech Republic (No. 18), Lithuania (No. 19) and Slovenia (No. 21). The United Kingdom closes the list at No. 20.
Although Lithuania ranked 19th this year, among respondents under 30 it was the happiest country in 2024. For those over 60, Lithuania came in at No. 44. Australia and New Zealand also saw much lower rankings among young people.
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Israel
6. Netherlands
7. Norway
8. Luxembourg
9. Switzerland
10. Australia
11. New Zealand
12. Costa Rica
13. Kuwait
14. Austria
15. Canada
16. Belgium
17. Ireland
18. Czech Republic
19. Lithuania
20. United Kingdom
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