While Finland once again tops the World Happiness Report’s rankings, the United States, at No. 24, earned its lowest ranking according to the 2025 report. The report released Thursday marks United Nation’s “International Day of Happiness,” and uses data from sources such as the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll and the Gallup World Poll to determine the state of happiness around the world.
In the United States and parts of Europe, declining happiness and social trust have contributed significantly to the rise of political polarization and votes against “the system,” the report finds.
But in brighter news, global research shows that people are much kinder than we expect.
“People’s fellow citizens are better than they think they are, and to realize that will make you happier, of course, but it’ll also change the way you think about your neighbors,” said John Helliwell, a founding editor of the World Happiness Report.
“And so you’re more inclined to think of a stranger in the street as simply a friend you haven’t met and not somebody who poses a threat to you,” said Helliwell, who is an economics professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia.
There’s “room for improvement,” Helliwell said, in believing that we’re all part of a larger group that looks out for each other. It’s an important source of happiness that we haven’t properly tapped, he said.
The report draws on Gallup World Poll data from people in more than 140 countries. Countries are ranked on happiness based on their average life evaluations over the three preceding years, in this case 2022 to 2024. The report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an editorial board.
The survey asks each participant to score their life as a whole and rankings are based on those life evaluations. The report then looks at six key variables to help explain life evaluations: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden – the top four – remain in the same order as 2024. And Norway is again No. 7.c
World’s 20 Happiest Countries in 2025
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
11. Australia
12. New Zealand
13. Switzerland
14. Belgium
15. Ireland
16. Lithuania
17. Austria
18. Canada
19. Slovenia
20. Czech Republic
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