World Happiness Report 2026

News: World Happiness Report 2026 was recently released by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford.

About World Happiness Report 2026

• About: It is an annual report which provides an insight into the global picture of social media and happiness.
• Published by: It is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
• First edition: For the first time, the World Happiness Report was published in 2012.
• World Happiness Report 2026: This is the 14th edition of World Happiness Report.
  • The rankings are based on responses from around 100,000 people across 140 countries and territories
  • Indicators: The rankings are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life.
    • Factors such as GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption are also taken into account.
    • Scale: Participants were asked to rate their lives on a scale of 0  to 10.
• Findings of the report
  • Highest Position: Finland remains the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year.
    • Nordic nations, including Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, consistently rank among the highest.
  • Lowest Position: Countries experiencing conflict remain at the bottom, with Afghanistan again the least happy, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi.
    • For the second year in succession, no English-speaking nation is included in the top 10.
  • United States is placed 23rd, Canada 25th, and United Kingdom 29th in the list.
  • Costa Rica has made a notable jump to 4th position from 23rd in 2023, attributed to strong social ties and family relationships.
  • India Performance: Out of 147 countries, India ranks 116th, showing a slight improvement from 118th in 2025.
  • Regional Differences: In parts of the Middle East and South America, social media use is more positively linked to well-being, with youth satisfaction remaining stable despite high usage.
    • Excessive social media usage is associated with a significant decline in well-being among young people, especially teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe.