World Happiness Report 2026

The World Happiness Report 2026 has placed Finland at the top for the ninth consecutive year, while denoting the growing concern over heavy social media use among young people. The report also showed a slight improvement for India, which moved to 116th place among 147 countries and territories. Nordic countries continued to dominate the rankings, while conflict-affected states remained at the bottom.

Global Happiness Rankings

• Finland retained first place, followed by Iceland and Denmark.
• Costa Rica rose to fourth, its highest ever position and the best ranking for a Latin American country.
• Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg and Switzerland completed the top ten.
• India ranked 116th, improving from 118th in 2025.

Social Media and Youth Well-being

The report linked extensive social media use with lower life satisfaction among young people in several countries. It noted a marked decline in life evaluations among people under 25 in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand over the past decade. The impact was especially strong among teenage girls, with those using social media for five hours or more a day reporting lower satisfaction levels.

Factors Behind High Rankings

• The report credited Finland and other Nordic countries with strong welfare systems.
• High social trust, equal income distribution and healthy life expectancy also supported their rankings.
• The assessment used six indicators – GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
• About 100,000 people across 140 countries and territories were surveyed for the study.

Lowest-Ranked Countries

Countries affected by conflict and instability remained at the bottom of the index. Afghanistan was ranked the unhappiest country again, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi. The ten lowest-ranked countries also included Tanzania, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Yemen, Botswana and Zimbabwe.