World’s Happiest Countries in 2023

Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world for a sixth year in a row in the UN’s latest annual happiness report.

The World Happiness Report research leverages six factors to help explain self-reported happiness levels across the world: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption. Governments are increasingly using this analysis to orient policies towards happiness. Since the publication of the first World Happiness Report in 2012, there is a growing consensus that happiness can be promoted through public policies and the actions of business and civil society.

“The ultimate goal of politics and ethics should be human well-being,” said Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University professor, president of Sustainable Development Solutions Network and one of the editors of the report. "The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a 'soft' and 'vague' idea but rather focuses on areas of life of critical importance: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues, and good citizenship. We need to turn this wisdom into practical results to achieve more peace, prosperity, trust, civility — and yes, happiness —in our societies."

Finland remains in the top position for the sixth year in a row. Lithuania is the only new country in the top twenty, up more than 30 places since 2017. Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey, with average life evaluations more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) than in the ten happiest countries. The United States ranked 15th.

The top ten countries for happiness are:

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Israel

5. Netherlands

6. Sweden

7. Norway

8. Switzerland

9. Luxembourg

10. New Zealand

The report takes a closer look at the trends of how happiness is distributed, in many cases unequally, among people. It examines the happiness gap between the top and the bottom halves of the population. This gap is small in countries where almost everyone is very unhappy, and in the top countries where almost no one is unhappy. More generally, people are happier living in countries where the happiness gap is smaller. Happiness gaps globally have been fairly stable, although there are growing gaps in many African countries. 

“This year’s report features many interesting insights,” said Lara Aknin, professor and Director of the Helping and Happiness Lab of Simon Fraser University and one of the editors of the report, "but one that I find particularly interesting and heartening has to do with pro-sociality. For a second year, we see that various forms of everyday kindness, such as helping a stranger, donating to charity, and volunteering, are above pre-pandemic levels. Acts of kindness have been shown to both lead to and stem from greater happiness."