The world’s leading publication on global well-being published its 2026 rankings of the happiest countries, along with a plethora of analysis from scholars around the world. Titled “Happiness and Social Media,” this year’s edition of the World Happiness Report zeros in on the sweeping impact of social media on the well-being of young people.
Spoiler alert: It’s not good – especially for teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe.
Finland is the happiest country in the world for a record ninth year in a row, also topping Thursday’s Freedom in the World rankings as the freest country. Iceland and Denmark follow in second and third place for happiness.
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Why do Nordic countries always rank the happiest? Not only do they have strong economies, but “wealth is distributed much more equally than we find in other places,” said World Happiness Report editor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve in a livestreamed launch event.
The Nordic countries’ affordable public health systems and strong social support networks also contribute to higher life evaluation scores.
“We often talk about inequality within countries – which is certainly rising – but there’s actually less inequality when we look between countries, economically speaking,” added De Neve.
Costa Rica moved up to fourth place this year – the highest any Latin American country has ever ranked. The World Happiness Report attributes this in part to the strong links that exist between generations in the Central American country.
Israel stands out as the only Middle Eastern country in the top 10 happiest countries. It ranked eighth for the second year in a row, despite its ongoing war with Hamas.
“It doesn’t surprise me because Israelis have a sense of meaning and purpose, which contributes to their overall satisfaction with life,” Anat Fanti, a happiness policy researcher at Bar-Ilan University, told The Times of Israel. “Israel’s high ranking does not negate the current emotional crisis but suggests that happiness indicators reflect deeper societal layers rather than the turmoil of the moment,” she continued.
How Rankings Are Determined
The global happiness rankings are based on one question from the Gallup World Poll, derived from what’s called the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. It asks respondents to place themselves on an imaginary ladder with steps from zero (the worst possible life) to 10 (the best possible life). Gallup combines the last three year’s responses to more precisely estimate each country’s average life evaluation, resulting in a sample size of more than 3,000 people.
The World Happiness Report uses six variables to explain most of the variation in average life evaluation scores across countries and years: whether respondents say they have someone to count on, the logarithm of the country’s gross domestic product per capita, a healthy life expectancy, the freedom to make life choices, perceptions of generosity and freedom from corruption. They note that these six factors correlate with happiness scores but don’t necessarily cause the scores.
“Dystopia” is the imaginary country the World Happiness Report uses as a benchmark against which to compare all other countries. “Dystopia” has the lowest scores in each category, and so far, no country has dropped below its standing.
Conflict-ridden countries such as Venezuela plunged on the happiness scale, and Afghanistan was ranked the unhappiest country as it remains under Taliban rule. Sierra Leone and Malawi round out the three unhappiest countries.
Notably, this is the first year since the happiness rankings started in 2012 that no English-speaking countries made the top 10, with only half in the top 20. The U.S., for example, is ranked 23rd of more than 140 countries surveyed – similar to its rank of 24th a year ago.
English-speaking countries experienced the biggest drop in youth well-being – particularly Canada, the U.S., New Zealand and Australia. The happiness of those countries’ under-25 population fell significantly – by almost one whole point on the 0-10 scale. Meanwhile, youth well-being in the rest of the world increased.
The Impact of Social Media
While social media use is not the sole factor driving the decline in youth well-being, evidence suggests that heavy social media use puts young people’s well-being at risk, especially in some countries and on certain platforms.
Not all social media is necessarily harmful, however. The report distinguishes between algorithmic social media platforms, which tend to show a negative association with well-being, and platforms “designed to facilitate social connections,” which show a clear positive association with happiness.
Young people who use social media less than one hour per day actually report higher happiness levels than those who don’t use social media at all. But those groups are relatively small, as adolescents around the world are estimated to spend an average of 2 1/2 hours on social media per day.
“When it comes to happiness, building what is good in life is more important than finding and fixing what is bad,” said John F. Helliwell, a founding editor of the World Happiness Report. “Both need doing, now more than ever.”