The 2025 edition of the World Happiness Report (WHR) focuses on “sharing and caring.” It reveals strong ties between the belief in the kindness of others and happiness. The report investigates the benefits to the recipients of caring behavior and the benefits to those who care for others. Nordic countries top the ranking of the world’s happiest countries.

The report draws on the Gallup World Poll, which asked if, in the last month, respondents gave money to charity, volunteered, or helped a stranger, and on the “lost wallet” research, which shows that “the perceived and actual return of lost wallets shows that people are much too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities compared to reality.” According to the report, actual rates of wallet return are double of what people expect.

In addition, the report finds that sharing meals with others is strongly linked with well-being across all regions, yet the number of people dining alone in the US has more than doubled over the past two decades. Household size, too, is closely linked to happiness, according to the report, with families of four to five enjoying the highest levels of happiness in Mexico and Europe.

The report warns that 19% of young adults across the world who, in 2023, reported having no one they could rely on for social support represent a 39% increase relative to 2006. It finds that deaths of despair (the opposite of happiness) are less frequent in countries where benevolent acts are more common, and while deaths of this kind are falling in the majority of countries, this is not the case in the US or the Republic of Korea.

The report chalks up the rise of political polarization to declining levels of happiness and social trust in the US and parts of Europe.

For the eighth year in a row, Finland is the “happiest” country, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, and Mexico are also among the happiest, with Costa Rica and Mexico entering the top ten for the first time. The world’s “unhappiest” nation is once again Afghanistan.  

Ranked 24th, the US finds itself in the lowest-ever position. In 23rd place, the UK reports its lowest average life evaluation since the 2017 edition of the report.

According to a press release, these rankings “are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life.” In the report, economists, psychologists, sociologists, and other experts “seek to explain the variations across countries and over time using factors such as [gloss domestic product (GDP)] per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.” While these factors help explain the variations across nations, the rankings are based exclusively on “the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives.”

The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and the WHR’s Editorial Board. The 13th edition of the report was launched on 20 March 2025. [Publication: World Happiness Report 2025] [Executive Summary] [Publication Website] [Press Release] [Country Rankings] [SDG Knowledge Hub Stories on 2024 and 2023 Editions]