Thursday, March 20

The 2025 Global Happiness Report is out, with Finland taking the top spot once again while the United States dropped to an all-time low for the second year in a row.

The Global Happiness Report uses results from a massive survey conducted in most countries around the world, and it is released every year on March 20 in honor of the United Nations' International Day of Happiness. The survey asks citizens to rate their country on a scale of 0-10 regarding the happiness of the population, labeling that score the country's "life evaluation." This life evaluation is determined using a combination of six factors: social support, GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.

Overall, Europe was the happiest continent, with 7 of the top 10 countries located in Europe and the same five Scandinavian countries making the top 10 as last year. Meanwhile, Africa was the unhappiest continent, with 7 of the bottom 10 countries.

The bottom 10 were Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Comoros, and Lesotho.

The top 10 in 2025 were Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, and Mexico. Here are this year's results by continent:

North America:

Costa Rica was North America's happiest country (7.3), making the top 10 for the first time, while the Dominican Republic was the least happy (5.8. After dropping out of the top 20 for the first time last year, the United States (6.7) fell further to 24th, while Canada maintained their spot in the top 20 with a score of 6.8. Mexico (7.0) improved dramatically from last year, jumping from 25th to 10th this year to also make the top 10 for the first time.

South America:

Uruguay was South America's happiest country (6.6) for the sixth year in a row, while Venezuela was its least happy country (5.7). Overall, Uruguay was the sixth-happiest country in the Americas, after Costa Rica, Mexico, the US, Canada, and Belize.

Europe:

The happiest country in Europe was Finland (7.7), while Albania was the least happy (5.4). Northern Europe dominated the rankings as usual, with 7 out of the top 10 and all of the top 5 countries on the index.

Across the entire world, Finland placed first (7.7), Denmark second (7.5), Iceland third (7.5), Sweden fourth (7.3), Netherlands fifth (7.3), Norway seventh (7.3), and Luxembourg ninth (7.1). Switzerland (6.9) fell to 13th after placing ninth last year, while the United Kingdom (6.7) placed 23rd, a further drop from 20th last year.

Africa:

Africa ranked as the world's least happy continent, and its happiest country was Mauritius (5.8) while its least happy country was Lesotho (3.7). While Libya took the top spot in Africa last year, a slight drop ceded the position to Mauritius. 7 of the 10 least happy countries in the world were located in Africa, with the exceptions of Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Yemen.

The Middle East and Central Asia:

The Middle East had Israel as its happiest country (7.2), placing in the top 10, while its least happy was Afghanistan, which was the world's saddest country with a rating of 1.4. Western and Central Asia had countries across the scale, ranging from the upper end with Israel (7.3), UAE (6.8), and Kuwait (6.6), to the lower end with Afghanistan (1.7), Lebanon (3.2), and Yemen (3.6), with everything in between.

South and East Asia:

South and East Asia's most happy was Taiwan (6.7) and its least happy was Bangladesh (3.9). East Asia's scores hovered around 5-6, in addition to Taiwan with 6.7, Singapore with 6.5, Vietnam with 6.4, and Thailand with 6.2, and South Asia had the lowest scores with Bangladesh (3.9), Sri Lanka (3.9), and India (4.4).

Oceania:

Lastly, not much data was collected from Oceania, but Australia and New Zealand came in with solid scores of 7.0 each, placing 11th and 12th overall.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): Flushed toilets do not rotate in the opposite direction in the other hemisphere. The Coriolis effect does not apply to small items like toilets.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): I'm a firm believer that in the theory that people only do their best at things they truly enjoy. It is difficult to excel at something you don’t enjoy. (Jack Nicklaus)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Juggernaut (noun, JUG-er-nawt) - A juggernaut is something (such as a force, campaign, or movement) that is extremely large and powerful and cannot be stopped.

In a Sentence: The team is a juggernaut this year, winning more games than any team before it has.