World Happiness Report 2026: Everything You Need to Know

Despite the war going on in Iran, the World Happiness Report was released today, ranking the world's nations in celebration of the International Day of Happiness.

The Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford works with Gallup, a polling company, to collect the data and release the report every year. It always releases on March 20, celebrating the United Nations-designated International Day of Happiness.

The report takes 147 different countries into account, asking citizens to rank their lives on a visual scale of 0-10 known as the Cantril Ladder. Then, they consider six factors: social support, GDP per capita, life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.

So, here are this year's happiest countries:

• Finland came in at number one for the ninth time in a row, boasting an average score of 7.764. The nation is known for its incredible education system, safety, lack of corruption, and high levels of social support like free healthcare.

  
  

• Iceland ranked number two, with a country score of 7.540.

• Denmark came in at number three, just losing out to Iceland with an average score of 7.539.

  
  

• Costa Rica ranked number four with a score of 7.439, continuing its upward trajectory– in 2022, the Central American nation was just 23rd on the list, but they placed sixth last year and have improved further. Fourth place is also the highest-ever position for a Latin American nation.

  
  

• Sweden and Norway ranked fifth and sixth, respectively, adding to an already Nordic-dominated list. Out of the five Nordic countries, four made the top five.

  
  

• The Netherlands ranked seventh on the list, with a score of 7.223.

  
  

• Despite the ongoing war, Israel placed eighth, making them the only country in the Middle East to make the top 20. The UAE and Saudi Arabia managed to place 21 and 22 on the report, respectively, but others, like Lebanon and Yemen, were some of the lowest ranking nations on the list.

  
  

• The report placed Luxembourg ninth, with a score of 7.063, and Switzerland rounded out the top ten with a score of 7.018.

However, the report doesn't just investigate country happiness– it also finds reasons for unhappiness across nations, and one of the leading factors proved to be social media. In particular, English-speaking nations like Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom saw significant declines in scores, driven by youth unhappiness. Australia placed 15th, the US placed 25th, and the UK came in at 29th.

This unhappiness among people aged under 25 was largely attributed to the misuse of social media in these regions– the researchers found that while social media was used extensively in various countries, it did not have a negative impact in all of these nations.

View the full interactive map here, and view the full report here.

Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): Thomas Edison invented an electric pen in 1876 that was later adapted to become the first electric tattoo machine in 1891.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Happiness is a state of mind. It's just according to the way you look at things. (Walt Disney)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Nadir (noun, NAY-deer) - Nadir refers to the lowest or worst point of something. When used in astronomy, nadir describes the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer.

In a Sentence: Only once the novel’s protagonist reaches her nadir does she arouse the reader’s empathy, and we root for her to climb back to respectability.

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