For the eighth year in a row, Finland has been named the world’s happiest country in the World Happiness Report published on Thursday.
Compiled annually by pollster Gallup, the United Nations, and the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, the report uses data gathered from over 140 countries around the world.
As in previous editions of the report, the top 10 is dominated by European countries with all but three entries from the continent.
Within that group, the top four in the 2025 report continue to be an all-Nordic affair with Finland being closed followed by Denmark (second), Iceland (third), and Sweden (fourth).
How do you measure happiness?
The notion of happiness is in itself subjective but the annual World Happiness Report rankings are based on subjective life evaluations compiled over the past three years from the Gallup World Poll in cooperation with the University of Oxford and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
Interdisciplinary experts from the fields of economics, psychology, and sociology are then called in to review the data and make evaluations.
The variables quantified by the report’s authors include income (GDP per capita), healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.
For the first time, the 2025 report’s data crunchers have looked at the impact of benevolent behaviour on our well-being and happiness levels.
Importance of caring
“Happiness isn’t just about wealth or growth - it’s about trust, connection, and knowing people have your back," Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, said. "If we want stronger communities and economies, we must invest in what truly matters: each other”.
Researchers say that beyond health and wealth, some factors that influence happiness sound deceptively simple: sharing meals with others, having somebody to count on for social support, and household size.
In Mexico and Europe, for example, a household size of four to five people predicts the highest levels of happiness, the study said.
While the report authors note the importance of the family unit as a hallmark of caring and sharing, with large Latin American households being particularly singled out, the growing trend towards loneliness - most strongly felt by young people - is still prevalent.
In 2023, 19 per cent of young adults globally reported having no one to rely on for support, an increase of 39 per cent compared to 2006.
However, believing in the kindness of others is also much more closely tied to happiness than previously thought, according to the latest findings.
As an example, the report suggests that people who believe that others are willing to return their lost wallet is a strong predictor of the overall happiness of a population.
Nordic nations rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets, the study found.
According to Alexandra Peth, a managing director of a bioindustry trade association in Finland, said Finnish culture prioritises trust and connection.
"People trust each other in Finland and I think on many levels in the society, we try to support each other," Peth said. "So I think the system makes it kind of that you can trust it somehow".
Overall, researchers said that global evidence on the perceived and actual return of lost wallets shows that people are much too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities compared to reality - actual rates of wallet return are around twice as high as people expect.
Which 10 countries were the least happy?
Afghanistan retains its position at the bottom of the table, with the bottom 10 largely remaining the same country-wise though their positions have been shuffled somewhat.
138. Lesotho
139. Comoros
140. Yemen
141. DR Congo
142. Botswana
143. Zimbabwe
144. Malawi
145. Lebanon
146. Sierre Leone
147. Afghanistan
Which countries were the 10 happiest?
The four happiest countries remain unchanged in 2025 with the Nordic countries carrying the top spots again this year.
However, there have been some changes in the rest of the top 10 with Costa Rica and Mexico pushing Switzerland and Australia - which took the ninth and tenth spots respectively in 2024 - further down the table.
The Netherlands moved up a spot in this year’s report to make it an all-European top five.
-
Finland
-
Denmark
-
Iceland
-
Sweden
-
The Netherlands
-
Costa Rica
-
Norway
-
Israel
-
Luxembourg
-
Mexico
