Finland is world’s ‘happiest’ for an eighth-straight year: UN

STORY: :: Source: 2025 World Happiness Report

:: Finland tops the list of the world’s ‘happiest’ countries for the eighth year in a row

:: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve /Editor/World Happiness Report

:: March 18, 2025

:: Miami, Florida

:: Helsinki, Finland

“They have lots of resources, GDP, and especially they share it very equally. So it’s a rising tide, lifting all boats approach with them. They also redistribute this level of income through the welfare state, which takes and helps out people who otherwise fall off the ship. And that gives them a safety net, which provides psychological safety as well, which is obviously very important to the way people feel. And then there is, they exhibit healthy lifestyles, healthy behaviours, resulting in healthy life expectancy and a healthcare system which is mostly universal and free. And then importantly, social support. So they trust each other, both others in the community around them, but also the institutions. And that turns out to be really, really important and a bit of a differentiator from other rich countries with long life expectancies.”

“The other northern countries follow closely behind Finland with Denmark and Sweden and Iceland. At the very bottom of the world happiness report, we have Afghanistan falling even lower with an average life satisfaction in a country with now 1.3 out of 10 in the way that people self-rate the way their lives are going.”

“The larger political turbulence, shall we say, these days, does very much play a role. And we pick this up in the negative emotions around anxiety, worry, stress for example, around the world, the degree that people worry has increased extraordinarily.”

People in 143 countries and territories are asked to evaluate their life on a scale from zero to 10, with 10 representing their best possible life. Results from the past three years are averaged to create a ranking.

Finland remained in the top spot for an eighth year – with an average score of 7.75 – followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, while Afghanistan held the bottom spot with scores of 1.36.

Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and editor of the World Happiness Report, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, said that among the factors that contributed to people’s wellbeing was GDP per capita, wealth distribution, a welfare state that provides psychological stability and a healthy life expectancy.

De Neve also said the report, which this year focused on the theme of “caring and sharing”, found that sharing meals with others was strongly linked with wellbeing across all global regions.

De Neve said the report also showed a general increase in anxiety, worry and stress around the world.

The annual World Happiness Report, launched in 2012 to support the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, is based on data from U.S. market research company Gallup, analysed by a global team now led by the University of Oxford.