The World Happiness Report (WHR) was released in mid-March by a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board. The report is produced under the editorial control of the WHR Editorial Board. The World Happiness Report reflects a worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and well-being as criteria for government policy. It reviews the state of happiness in the world today and shows how the science of happiness explains personal and national variations in happiness.
World Happiness Citizens
The report observed data on six variables and estimates of their life evaluations, which include GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. The happiness rankings are based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives. The World Happiness Report is released annually usually on March 20th as part of the International Day of Happiness celebration adopted by the United Nations in 2012.
For the seventh year, Finland is ranked number one with Denmark and Iceland trailing second and third, while United States fell to 23rd, and Afghanistan is last.
The top 10 countries have remained much the same since before COVID. Finland is still top, with Denmark now very close, and all five Nordic countries in the top 10. But in the next 10, there is more change, with the transition countries of Eastern Europe rising in happiness (especially Czechia, Lithuania, and Slovenia). Partly for this reason the United States and Germany have fallen to 23 and 24 in the rankings.
In many but not all regions, the young are happier than the old. But in North America happiness has fallen so sharply for the young that they are now less happy than the old. By contrast, in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the young are much happier than the old. Report courtesy of Gallup.