• Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 published on March 20.

• Besides Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden remain the top four and in the same order in the annual report published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.

• India ranked 118th in the list, up from the 126th position in the previous year.

How are the rankings done?

• The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup World Poll, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board.

• The World Happiness Report reflects a worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and well-being as criteria for government policy. 

• Countries are ranked according to their self-assessed life evaluations averaged over the years 2022–2024.

Key determinants of happiness include:

i) GDP per capita

ii) Healthy life expectancy

iii) Freedom

iv) Generosity

v) Perceptions of corruption.

• These factors collectively contribute to the overall well-being and happiness of a nation’s population.

• The theme for 2025, ‘Caring and Sharing’, underscores the importance of compassion and community in fostering global well-being. 

• The Gallup World Poll, which remains the principal source of data in this report, asked respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and the worst possible as a 0. 

• Each respondent provided a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril Ladder. 

Typically, around 1,000 responses were gathered annually for each country. Weights were used to construct population-representative national averages for each year in each country.

• Positive affect is given by the average of individual yes or no answers about three positive emotions: laughter, enjoyment, and interest.

• Negative affect is given by the average of individual yes or no answers about three negative emotions: worry, sadness, and anger. 

Afghanistan is again ranked as the unhappiest country 

• While India ranked 118th overall, in terms of the ‘Country rankings for six measures of benevolence’, it was listed much higher at 57 for (how people) donated; at 10 for how people volunteered; 74 for helping a stranger, and in case of wallet returned by a neighbour (115), stranger (86) and police (93).

• Afghanistan is again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world, this year 147th against last year’s 143rd rank (last). 

• While Nepal with 92nd rank (93 in 2024) and Pakistan, with 109th rank (108 in 2024) remained much ahead of India, Sri Lanka, with 133rd rank (128 in 2024) and Bangladesh 134th position (129 in 2024) lagged behind.

• China was ranked in 68th position this year, down from the 60th last year. • The State of Palestine is ranked 108th (103 in 2024) while Ukraine is at 111 rank (105 in 2024).

• The United States dropped to its lowest-ever position at 24, having previously peaked at 11th place in 2012.

Other key points of World Happiness Report

• 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. 

• Sharing meals with others is strongly linked with well-being across all global regions, but the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 per cent over the past two decades.

• Household size is closely linked to happiness. Four to five people living together enjoy the highest levels of happiness in Mexico and Europe, but many people in Europe are living on their own.

• In 2023, about 19 per cent of young adults across the world reported having no one they could count on for social support. This is a 39 per cent increase compared to 2006.

• Deaths of despair are less frequent in countries where benevolent acts are more frequent.

• Declining happiness and social trust in the US and parts of Europe combine to explain the rise and direction of political polarisation and anti-system votes.

• The cost-effectiveness of charities varies dramatically. Some charities are hundreds of times better at increasing happiness per dollar than others.

International Day of Happiness

• The UN observes March 20 as the International Day of Happiness.

• It was first celebrated worldwide in 2013 following a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly, which recognised happiness as a “fundamental human goal”.

• The resolution was initiated by Bhutan, a country which recognised the value of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product.

• The UNGA proclaimed March 20 as the International Day of Happiness recognising the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals and aspirations in the lives of human beings around the world and the importance of their recognition in public policy objectives.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)