World Happiness Report
The World Happiness Report is a publication that contains articles and rankings of national happiness, based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors.
Since 2024, the report has been published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and an independent editorial board. The editorial board consists of the three founding editors, John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey D. Sachs, along with Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Lara Aknin, and Shun Wang.
The report primarily uses data from the Gallup World Poll. As of March 2025, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world for eight years in a row.
History
In July 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 65/309, also named as Happiness: Towards a Holistic Definition of Development, inviting member countries to measure the happiness of their people and to use the data to help guide public policy.The first World Happiness Report was released on 1 April 2012, as a foundational text for the UN High Level Meeting: Well-being and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm, drawing international attention. On 2 April 2012, this was followed by the first UN High Level Meeting called Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm, which was chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in addition to that prime minister Jigme Thinley of Bhutan, a nation that adopted gross national happiness instead of gross domestic product as their main development indicator.
The first report outlined the state of world happiness, causes of happiness and misery, and policy implications highlighted by case studies. In 2013, the second World Happiness Report was issued, and in 2015 the third. Since 2016, it has been issued on an annual basis on 20 March, to coincide with the UN's International Day of Happiness.
Methods and philosophy
The rankings of national happiness are based on a happiness measurement survey undertaken world-wide by the polling company Gallup, Inc. Nationally representative samples of respondents are asked to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The report correlates the life evaluation results with various life factors.Researchers use the reports' life factor variables to explain national-level differences in life evaluation. However, some variables, such as unemployment or inequality, are not considered. That is because comparable data is not yet available across all countries. The reports' variables only show correlation, not causation.
The report measures subjective well-being using the "Cantril ladder" to reflect people’s own views, rather than external judgments. The goal is to free respondents to evaluate their own well-being.
The report shows how experts use well-being ratings to assess national progress. The experts are from fields including economics, psychology, survey analysis, and national statistics. Each report is organized by chapters that focus on issues relating to happiness. This includes mental illness, the objective benefits of happiness, the importance of ethics, policy implications, and links with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's approach to measuring subjective well-being and other international and national efforts.
WELLBYs
From 2021, the World Happiness Report has supported using WELLBYs. It says that QALYs only count a patient's health quality. Instead, WELLBYs should be used. The report says policy-makers should aim to increase the WELLBYs of people alive today and future generations.Annual report topics
The World Happiness Report has been published every year since 2012.In addition to ranking countries’ happiness and well-being levels, each report has contributing authors and most focus on a particular theme. The data used to rank countries in each report is drawn from the Gallup World Poll, as well as other sources such as the World Values Survey, in some of the reports. The Gallup World Poll questionnaire measures 14 areas within its core questions: business & economic, citizen engagement, communications & technology, diversity, education & families, emotions, environment & energy, food & shelter, government and politics, law & order, health, religion & ethics, transportation, and work.
2025 World Happiness Report
The 2025 World Happiness Report focused on the theme of “Caring and Sharing” and its impact on global well-being. It highlighted the positive correlation between caring behaviours and happiness, emphasizing the importance of social connections and also community life.2024 World Happiness Report
The 2024 World Happiness Report focused on happiness at different stages of life. Chapter 3 presents global data on child and adolescent wellbeing, whereas Chapters 4 and 5 focus on older age, covering the links between wellbeing and dementia and a deep dive into the well being of older people in India.2023 World Happiness Report
The 2023 World Happiness Report was a triannual analysis of 2020–2022, heavily influenced by COVID-19 and other significant challenges.For the sixth consecutive year, Finland was ranked on top, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel and the Netherlands. In the top-10 rankings, Israel jumped five places, while Switzerland fell four places. Lithuania was the only new country in the top-20.
2022 World Happiness Report
The 2022 World Happiness Report included a section looking at possible genetic effects on individual happiness.Finland is in the top position in the world happiness report in 2022. Followed by Denmark and Iceland in second and third place. Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel and New Zealand, were among the top 10 'happiest' countries in the world .
Among 146 countries ranked by the report, Afghanistan scores the lowest point of 2.523 and was ranked as the least 'happy' country in the world in 2022.
2021 World Happiness Report
The 2021 World Happiness Report, released on March 20, 2021, ranks 156 countries based on an average of three years of surveys between 2017 and 2019. The 2020 report especially focuses on the environment – social, urban, and natural, and includes links between happiness and sustainable development.Finland holds the rank of the happiest country in the world for the fourth consecutive year. It is followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Netherlands. Afghanistan received the lowest score, with South Sudan and Rwanda just above it. In addition to country rankings, this is the second year that the World Happiness Report ranks cities. The happiest city in the world is Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The report shows that the happiness ranking of cities is almost identical to that of the countries they are in.
2020 World Happiness Report
The 2020 World Happiness Report, released on March 20, 2020, ranks 156 countries based on an average of three years of surveys between 2017 and 2019. The 2020 report especially focuses on the environment – social, urban, and natural, and includes links between happiness and sustainable development.Finland holds the rank of the happiest country in the world for the third consecutive year. It is followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. Afghanistan received the lowest score, with South Sudan and Zimbabwe just above it. In addition to country rankings, this is the first year that the World Happiness Report ranks cities. The happiest city in the world is Helsinki, the capital of Finland. The report shows that the happiness ranking of cities is almost identical to that of the countries they are in.
In 2020, the editorial team expanded and Jan-Emmanuel De Neve became a co-editor, joining John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre became a fourth research pillar for the report. Associate editors were Lara Aknin, Haifang Huang and Shun Wang, and Sharon Paculor was recognized as production editor. From 2020, Gallup became a full data partner.
2019 World Happiness Report
The 2019 World Happiness Report focuses community. According to the 2019 Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world, with Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and The Netherlands holding the next top positions.The second chapter of the report, 'Changing World Happiness', measures year-to-year changes in happiness across countries. For this, changes are reported from 2005-2008 to 2016-2018. Of the 132 countries with data for 2005-2008 and 2016-2018, 106 had significant changes: 64 were significant increases and 42 were significant decreases. Benin was the top gainer, while Venezuela showed the greatest decrease. The chapter also considers how happiness has been affected by changes in the quality of government. The third chapter considers happiness and voting behaviour, with data suggesting that happier people are more likely to vote, and to vote for incumbents.
The fourth chapter is an examination of happiness and pro-social behaviour, finding that people are more likely to derive happiness from helping others when they feel free to choose whether or how to help, when they feel connected to the people they are helping, and when they can see how their help is making a difference.
The final topic of the report, digital and information technologies and happiness, is covered in the remaining chapters.
The editorial team for the 2019 report was expanded to include Lara Aknin as associate editor.