The annual World Happiness Report, released on the International Day of Happiness, reveals that Finland has retained its No. 1 position as the happiest country in the world for the eighth year running.
The report examines quality of life across 140 countries through the lenses of residents’ assessments. Various parameters evaluated by the report include social support, health, freedom, generosity, perception of corruption, and gross domestic product (GDP), all contributing to assessing happiness levels among 147 countries, as per Fortune.
Using a scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 being the best possible life imaginable), Finland was given the 7.74 rating indicative of being the happiest country in the world.
“They’re wealthy, they’re healthy, have social connections, social support, [and] a connection with nature. They’re not happy, joyful, dancing in the streets type people, but they’re very content with their lives,” Jan-Emanuel De Neve, professor of economics at the University of Oxford, leader of the Wellbeing Research Center and editor of The World Happiness Report, told Fortune.
Contemporary Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands are very close to Finland. For several years, these countries have also been ranked among the highest in happiness reports for their equally strong social support systems, high standards of living, and commitment to a positive work and life balance.
Then Costa Rica and Mexico this year occupies respective 6th and 10th places for the first time in history. In contrast, the ranking of the USA has plummeted to its lowest at 24th. UK follows just behind at 23rd.
Top 10 happiest countries in the world
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Costa Rica
- Norway
- Israel
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
Where Does India Stand?…
With a marginal improvement in the happiness quotient, India has climbed from 126 in 2024 to 118 in the latest World Happiness Report, 2025. It is important to mention that this ranking places India well behind more than a few conflict-riddled countries, namely Ukraine, Mozambique, and Iraq.
India has a highly supportive environment that has supported and nurtured social support; this has in turn contributed to the very high social support score of India. In contrast, its score on freedom was low; this considers whether people feel that they have a choice in their society and whether those choices in turn lead to a valuable life.
Among neighboring countries of India, the highest is Nepal at 92; followed by Pakistan, China at 68, and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ranked lower at 134 and 133 respectively.
“These six variables were chosen based on the assumption that they were the best available measures of factors that had been shown by both experimental and survey data to have significant links to subjective well-being and especially life evaluation,” the study remarked.
In the Happiness Report 2024, India secured the 126th spot of 143 nations, with a happiness score of 4.054, which was clearly miserable in comparison to the other fellow BRICS nations.
Outside of BRICS, Finland came on top with a score of 7.741 and the United States (US) scored 6.725.
Last year, Pakistan (108th, score 4.657) was ranked above India together with Nepal (93rd, score 5.158) and Myanmar (118th, score 4.354). It appears that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan performed worse than India in 2024.
As mentioned in the 2024 report, Indians in a lower-middle age (i.e., 30-44 years) were the least happy group, with a drop in the happiness score by 1.124 from either 2006-10 or down to 2021-23. The youngsters or under-30 Indians have been the happiest bunch in comparison to other compatriots with a score of 4.281 in 2021-2023.
How India performed along the benevolence factor?
In their ranking of countries for benevolence, researchers drew six measures: the first three were national average frequencies of people who report doing any of three benevolent acts at least once in the past month-donating, volunteering, and helping a stranger. The second three measures operationalize quite the opposite as respondents provide estimations as to how they would expect others to behave in situations requiring benevolence.
In the wallet questions, the respondents are asked to estimate, how likely is it, that their lost wallet or some other valuable object would be returned to them if found by: (a) a neighbour, (b) a stranger, or (c) a police officer?
Unhappiest Countries
The United Nations has determined Afghanistan as the most gloomy nation worldwide. The national ranking stands low because of the worsening situation faced by women in Afghanistan.
Sierra Leone and Lebanon occupied the positions of second and third among the least happy countries after Afghanistan. Multiple countries which face conflicts alongside poverty and social unrest occupy the bottom ranks in happiness ratings.
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