The happiest countries and findings from the World Happiness Report 2026

Ranking of 147 countries by self-reported life satisfaction. Score from 0 to 10, average 2023–2025.

Romain Barbe, Founder and Director of Mieux Donner

Data: World Happiness Report 2026, Gallup World Poll (2023–2025).

Why “happiness” and why life evaluation rather than emotions?

Why call it happiness? “Happiness has been a central word in descriptions of a good life since ancient times.” The WHR follows that tradition: “happiness” refers to how people evaluate the quality of their lives, not just their moment-to-moment feelings. Respondents give different answers depending on whether the question is about life as a whole or about feelings right now.

Why life evaluation, not emotions? There are two ways to measure happiness: as an emotion (am I feeling good right now?) and as a judgment (how satisfied am I with my life?). The WHR uses life evaluation because it is more stable and better captures life circumstances as a whole. Positive emotions — laughter, enjoyment, learning — are separately tracked but not used in the ranking. The report notes that positive emotions remain twice as frequent as negative ones, globally.

The six factors: tools for explanation, not calculation

These six variables are used to statistically explain why some countries score higher than others. They do not enter the ranking. As the report puts it: “We much prefer to let the judgements of individual respondents rule the rankings.”

💰GDP per capita: Log scale, PPP-adjusted (World Bank)

🤝Social support: “Do you have someone to count on in trouble?”

❤️Healthy life expectancy: WHO data, extrapolated to 2025

🗽Freedom of choice: “Are you satisfied with your freedom to choose?”

🎁Generosity: “Have you donated money in the past month?”

⚖️Perceptions of corruption: Perceived corruption in government and business

“Our happiness rankings are not based on any value of these six factors. Rather, rankings are based on individuals’ assessments of their own lives, in particular their answers to the single-item Cantril Ladder life evaluation question.” (World Happiness Report 2026, Chapter 2)

Rank	Country	Score
1	Finland	7.764
2	Iceland	7.540
3	Denmark	7.539
4	Costa Rica	7.439
5	Sweden	7.255
6	Norway	7.242
7	Netherlands	7.223
8	Israel	7.187
9	Luxembourg	7.063
10	Switzerland	7.018
11	New Zealand	6.995
12	Mexico	6.972
13	Ireland	6.928
14	Belgium	6.926
15	Australia	6.916
16	Kosovo	6.910
17	Germany	6.882
18	Slovenia	6.868
19	Austria	6.845
20	Czechia	6.821
21	United Arab Emirates	6.821
22	Saudi Arabia	6.817
23	United States	6.816
24	Poland	6.768
25	Canada	6.741
26	Taiwan	6.714
27	Belize	6.711
28	Lithuania	6.704
29	United Kingdom	6.694
30	Serbia	6.691
31	Uruguay	6.635
32	Brazil	6.634
33	Kazakhstan	6.633
34	Romania	6.629
35	France	6.586
36	Singapore	6.585
37	El Salvador	6.578
38	Italy	6.574
39	Panama	6.547
40	Kuwait	6.543
41	Spain	6.540
42	Guatemala	6.533
43	Malta	6.436
44	Argentina	6.430
45	Vietnam	6.428
46	Estonia	6.410
47	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6.381
48	Latvia	6.365
49	Jamaica	6.305
50	Chile	6.302
51	Nicaragua	6.301
52	Thailand	6.296
53	Uzbekistan	6.283
54	Slovakia	6.255
55	Bahrain	6.254
56	Philippines	6.206
57	Paraguay	6.198
58	Oman	6.197
59	Ecuador	6.144
60	Montenegro	6.139
61	Japan	6.130
62	Cyprus	6.126
63	Honduras	6.096
64	Dominican Republic	6.093
65	China	6.074
66	Kyrgyzstan	6.049
67	South Korea	6.040
68	Colombia	6.040
69	Portugal	6.029
70	Croatia	6.009
71	Malaysia	6.005
72	Peru	5.974
73	Mauritius	5.939
74	Hungary	5.937
75	Mongolia	5.936
76	Trinidad and Tobago	5.905
77	Moldova	5.851
78	Bolivia	5.835
79	Russia	5.834
80	Venezuela	5.756
81	Libya	5.731
82	North Macedonia	5.719
83	Algeria	5.714
84	Bulgaria	5.703
85	Greece	5.697
86	Albania	5.662
87	Indonesia	5.617
88	Tajikistan	5.591
89	Armenia	5.584
90	Hong Kong	5.569
91	Georgia	5.517
92	Laos	5.515
93	Mozambique	5.336
94	Turkey	5.300
95	Iraq	5.212
96	Gabon	5.167
97	Iran	5.151
98	Ivory Coast	5.148
99	Nepal	5.147
100	Cameroon	5.083
101	South Africa	5.009
102	Azerbaijan	4.993
103	Niger	4.940
104	Pakistan	4.868
105	Tunisia	4.798
106	Nigeria	4.788
107	Senegal	4.787
108	Namibia	4.781
109	Palestine	4.694
110	Kenya	4.674
111	Ukraine	4.658
112	Morocco	4.646
113	Guinea	4.609
114	Mali	4.588
115	Ghana	4.554
116	India	4.536
117	Somalia	4.508
118	Uganda	4.491
119	Jordan	4.478
120	Mauritania	4.473
121	Cambodia	4.462
122	Congo	4.456
123	Burkina Faso	4.455
124	Benin	4.393
125	Chad	4.385
126	Lesotho	4.375
127	Bangladesh	4.319
128	Gambia	4.306
129	Myanmar	4.287
130	Liberia	4.280
131	Togo	4.277
132	Madagascar	4.174
133	Zambia	4.106
134	Sri Lanka	4.013
135	Ethiopia	3.985
136	Comoros	3.925
137	Eswatini	3.909
138	Tanzania	3.902
139	Egypt	3.862
140	DR Congo	3.761
141	Lebanon	3.723
142	Yemen	3.532
143	Botswana	3.464
144	Zimbabwe	3.346
145	Malawi	3.284
146	Sierra Leone	3.251
147	Afghanistan	1.446

World Happiness Report 2026: key findings

This thematic edition focuses on the relationship between social media and wellbeing. It covers 147 countries, draws on the Gallup World Poll 2023–2025, and mobilises 9 independent research teams.

Countries analysed: 147. Global life satisfaction ranking, 0–10 scale, 3-year average (2023–2025)

Countries gaining vs losing: 79 / 41. 79 countries have improved significantly since 2006–2010. 41 have declined. The world overall is happier, but the West is falling behind.

Gap: 1st vs last: 6.3 pts. Between 1st place (7.764) and last (1.446): a chasm that illustrates the devastating impact of conflict on perceived wellbeing.

Top 6 happiest countries in 2026

1. Finland: 7.764

2. Iceland: 7.540

3. Denmark: 7.539

4. Costa Rica all-time high: 7.439

5. Sweden: 7.255

6. Norway: 7.242

Finland leads, alone. Finland holds the top spot with a score of 7.764, ahead of a group of three: Iceland, Denmark, and Costa Rica (ranks 2–4 with overlapping confidence intervals). Sweden and Norway complete the top six, followed by the Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

Costa Rica reaches 4th, an all-time record for Latin America. Costa Rica’s rise to 4th marks the highest ever ranking for a Latin American country. This year’s top 20 also includes Mexico at 12th. This is consistent with a pattern the WHR has documented: some countries achieve high happiness at a fraction of the cost of others, a chapter of the WHR 2025 on the subject.

No English-speaking country in the top 10 for the first time. In 2013, all top ten countries were western industrial nations. Now only eight are. Canada fell from 6th in 2013 to 25th in 2026. Australia fell from 10th to 15th. The industrial countries pushed out of the top ten between 2013 and 2026 include Canada, Austria, and Australia.

(Source : mieuxdonner.org)