This year, the United States fell to its lowest ever in the World Happiness Report, an annual survey released on International Happiness Day that highlights the positive impact of kindness and social connections on people’s life satisfaction.
Finland remains the happiest country for the eighth consecutive year, while Mexico and Costa Rico are ranked in the top 10 for the first time since their first release in 2012.
This year’s report released by Gallup and its partners ranks 147 countries by their happiness levels, based on an average population assessment of quality of life from 2022 to 2024.
Researchers found that being kind to others and being positively cared for and shared with others has a great impact on happiness.
“Happiness is more than just wealth or growth, it’s about trust, connection and knowing people’s support,” Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said in a statement.
The United States ranks 24th and has the lowest ranking
The United States ranks 24th in the world, below its position 2024 ranking. The United States previously peaked at No. 11 in 2012.
One factor highlighted in the report is that more and more people Eat alone.
“In 2023, about one in four Americans reported eating only all meals the day before, a 53% increase since 2003,” the report said. “Dining alone becomes more common for every age group alone, especially for young people.”
A review of data from the report shows that there is a large variability in the speed of meal sharing around the world, and that shared meals have a positive impact on health.
Another factor that contributed to the decline in U.S. rankings and some European countries are “political polarization and growth in opposition” systemic votes, the report said.
“The national evolution of happiness and trust is highly correlated with the rising possibility of voting for anti-system parties in Western Europe and the United States,” the author wrote.
Mexico, Costa Rica enters the top ten for the first time
The rise in Mexico and Costa Rica rankings seems to be a key reason for the size of the family.
“Latin American society is characterized by a larger family size and strong family ties that provide valuable lessons for other societies seeking higher and sustainable well-being,” the report said.
The report compares Mexico with European countries, explaining that even if poorer, “larger families mean that there is a potential advantage in establishing positive social interactions within the family, which may partially offset the differences from European income.”
According to data cited in the report, 23% of households are single in Europe, while in Mexico, only 11% are single.
“In Mexico and Europe, people living in families with four to five members reported the highest average life satisfaction,” the author wrote. “We also observed a U-shaped inverted relationship. People in single families and in families with six or seven members had lower average life satisfaction.”
The wallet experiment
Gallup World poll asked people in 2019 if they thought others would return a lost wallet and found that “people are too pessimistic about others’ kindness.”
“When researchers dropped their wallets on the street, the percentage of returning them was much higher than people expected,” the report said.
People believe that others will return lost wallets, which also helps a country’s ranking.
Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, rank the highest among the top ten countries and are one of the most important places to expect wallets, the report said.
“Wallet data is so convincing because they confirm that people live in people who think people are happier lives among people,” John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia and founding editor of World Happiness Report, said in a statement.
Furthermore, researchers found that globally, benevolent behaviors were 10% more frequent in 2024 than in 2017-2019.
List of the top 20 happiest countries
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- costa rica
- Norway
- Israel
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Switzerland
- Belgium
- Ireland
- Lithuania
- Austria
- Canada
- slovenia
- Czech or Czech Republic
