The enduring effects of the pandemic, coupled Putin's "special military operation" and worldwide inflation made 2022 a difficult year. But the human resolve to be happy has been "remarkably resilient," says the UN's 2023 World Happiness Report, which recorded global satisfaction averages as high as those in the pre-pandemic years.
The report, which draws on global survey data from people in more than 150 countries, placed Finland in the top position for the sixth year in a row, with a happiness score significantly ahead of all other countries.
The World Happiness Report rankings are largely based on life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll. The six key variables the report quantifies are income (GDP per capita), social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption. And the most common question to measure people’s well-being is: "Overall, how satisfied are you with your life these days?" To answer, people rely on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 = completely dissatisfied, 10 = completely satisfied).
As with Finland topping the list for the sixth year, much of the rest of the top 10 remains largely unchanged. Denmark safeguarded its second spot, while Iceland took on third place.
One of the biggest jumps in the rankings was Israel in fourth place, moving up five positions from last year.
Outside the top 10, Austria and Australia took 11th and 12th positions, followed by Canada, which went back up two places to 13th from last year’s lowest-ever ranking of 11th happiest.
Ireland was deemed the 14th happiest, followed by the United States (15th), Germany (16th), Belgium (17th), Czechia (18th), the United Kingdom (19th), and Lithuania (20th).
Year after year, the happiest countries tend to be the same; for instance, 19 countries out of this year’s top 20 were also on the list last year. But there was one exception, Lithuania, which has steadily risen over the past six years, from 52nd in 2017 to 20th this year.
France dropped out of the top 20 to 21st in this year’s report.
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