Happiest countries: A Nordic nation is still the world’s happiest

If happiness were an Olympic event, the Nordic countries would be guaranteed a place on the podium.

In fact, all three places on the podium.

According to the latest edition of the World Happiness Report, the three happiest countries in the world are Finland, Iceland and Denmark.

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for a record 9th consecutive time, ahead of Iceland in second place and Denmark in third place in the ranking compiled by the Center for Wellbeing Research at the University of Oxford and included in the annual World Happiness Report.

Costa Rica performed well, placing 4th – the highest ranking ever for a Latin American country – but then it returned to the Nordic countries, with Sweden and Norway occupying 5th and 6th places respectively. Three other European countries appear in the top 10: the Netherlands in 7th place, Luxembourg in 9th place and Switzerland in 10th place.

Israel, the only Middle Eastern country to make the top 20, landed in 8th place.

The United States is in 23rd place this year, while Canada is in 25th place and the United Kingdom is in 29th. This is the second year in a row that none of the original English-speaking countries – the United States, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, Canada or the United Kingdom – have made the top 10.

The happiest country in the world in 2026

The happiest country in the world in 2026

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To determine the ranking, the Gallup World Poll asks respondents from 147 countries to rate their lives using a picture of a scale, with the best possible life being 10 and the worst possible being 0. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, called the Cantril scale.

The researchers look at six factors, including GDP per capita, life expectancy, generosity and perceptions of freedom and corruption, to explain variations between countries. The ranking is based on a three-year average, which smooths out peaks and declines caused by major events such as war or financial downturns.

Finns reported an average score of 7.764 when rating their life satisfaction.

Finland’s deep commitment to cooperation partly explains its position at the top of the ranking, John F. Helliwell, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia and founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said in an interview.

“Successful societies cooperate in the face of adversity,” he said. “The Finns know that. And once you feel like you’re in this together, there are no limits to what you can do.”

For comparison, respondents in the United States had a life evaluation score of 6.816 on average.

The report’s authors have begun paying attention to what they see as a youth happiness crisis, first mentioned in the 2024 rankings.

In the latest edition, the survey finds that the life evaluation of respondents under the age of 25 in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has fallen by almost one point on a scale of 0 to 10 over the past decade, a dramatic decline, especially as the average satisfaction of young people in the rest of the world has increased, according to data from the Gallup World Poll.

“It’s a striking decline in young people’s well-being,” Helliwell said. “One of the culprits, particularly in the United States, is the extent and nature of social media use. »

But, the survey warns, “negative emotions are increasingly common in all regions of the world.”

Only three of the six English-speaking countries are in the top 20, despite being among the richest countries in the world. New Zealand fared best, ranking 11th, followed by Ireland at 13th and Australia at 15th.

Internet consumption is high almost everywhere, including on social networks, according to the survey.

But according to researchers, a key factor in the sharp decline in youth happiness is the number of hours young people spend consuming social media or playing games. And while experts say it’s important to limit time spent online in general, some ways of spending time online are healthier than others, including communicating with loved ones and learning new skills.

Namely, Helliwell said social media use is high among young Latinos, but their well-being is strong and growing.

He highlighted “the way you use social media” and added that a key question is “whether it’s really social media or anti-social media.”

Some Internet and social media consumption is not necessarily negative, he said, adding, “There seems to be a happy medium.”

“You don’t want to be disconnected, but you don’t want to be too connected,” he said. “With the Internet, too much is a bad thing. »

Some trends are not necessarily surprising or new, regardless of the impacts of social media. Countries at the bottom of the ranking, for example, are often those where there is significant geopolitical conflict. For example, Afghanistan came last, at 147th, preceded by Sierra Leone.

And rich countries tend to continue to do well, even if some of the richest fail to make the top 20. The United Arab Emirates appears at 21st and Saudi Arabia grabs 22nd, just ahead of the United States.

However, the emerging picture of happiness is complex and, while many factors need to be considered, migrating to a digital means of producing and consuming information is essential.

“The digital age is reshaping the social and emotional foundations of well-being in Europe,” Zeynep Ozkok, an economist at St. Francis Xavier University, said in a statement accompanying the rankings.

“The effects are neither uniform nor inevitable: they depend on who you are, the social world you operate in, and the digital environment around you. Understanding these interactions is essential for developing policies that support well-being in an increasingly online society.”

Even if the specter of overuse of social networks looms, the authors of the study are not pessimistic. This is partly because countries around the world have started to adopt measures to protect young people from the dangers of social media.

Helliwell also draws hope from researchers’ ability to identify the trends that shape global happiness, and which underline its fundamentals. In the happiest countries, people have not lost sight of the essential.

Consider finding the best place to lose your wallet. Needless to say, it’s Finland.

“Everyone likes to live where they expect their wallet to be full,” Helliwell said.

It’s also no surprise that the Nordic countries continue to dominate the survey, now in its 14th edition.^th year. These countries, located in Northern Europe, have strong health and education systems that provide crucial safeguards for a tumultuous modern life.

But Helliwell said it’s important not to lose sight of the goodness that most people possess, even beyond the countries ranked at the top.

“The world is full of kind strangers,” he said. “If you know this, it affects you in every way. »

Afghanistan remains the unhappiest country in the world, ranked 147th, according to the ranking. Other countries at the bottom of the list are: Botswana (No. 143), Zimbabwe (No. 144), Malawi (No. 145) and Sierra Leone (No. 146).