The 2024 World Happiness Report is out and northern Europe dominates the rankings. To make the list, which is published by Gallup, the United Nations, and the University of Oxford, people from over 140 nations are asked to give a rating to aspects of their own lives.
These results are then analysed by a range of economics experts, psychologists and sociologists in relation to six factors: income (GDP per capita), health and longevity, access to welfare support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption.
Finland and the Nordics
Eight out of 10 countries at the top of the Happiness ranking are in northern Europe, but it’s the Nordics again who really dominate. Finland took the number one spot for the seventh year running, alongside its neighbours: Denmark (No. 2), Iceland (No. 3), Sweden (No. 4), and Norway (No. 7)
There was no change at the bottom of the happiness scale either. Afghanistan (143) is the world’s unhappiest nation. The bottom 10 included other war-torn, insecure and developing nations, such as Congo (139) and Sierra Leone (140). Apart from Afghanistan and Lebanon, all the lowest ranked countries are in Africa.
USA drops out of top 20
It was a notable result also for the USA, but not in a good way. For the first time, the US has dropped out of the top 20 countries in the world for happiness, falling to 23. Germany (No. 24) was also effectively pushed out of the top 20, partly due to former Eastern bloc nations rising up the rankings with Czechia at 18, Lithuania at 19 and Slovenia at 21. The United Kingdom managed to cling to number 20.
“Disconcerting” drop in young people’s wellbeing
The researchers were able to dissect the data by age this year. Most children and young people aged 15 to 24 benefit from rising wellbeing and tend to report greater life satisfaction than adults aged 25 and above. But, around the world from Western Europe to North America, and in the Middle East, North Arica and South Asia, the wellbeing of the 15-24 age group has dropped since 2019, the analysts noted, with one of the report’s editors calling the phenomenon “disconcerting.”
Professor John F. Helliwell, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, and a founding Editor of the World Happiness Report, said there “are now enough years of data” for the researchers to “plausibly separate age and generational patterns for happiness.” He goes on to note, “a great variety among countries in the relative happiness of the younger, older, and in-between populations. Hence the global happiness rankings are quite different for the young and the old, to an extent that has changed a lot over the last dozen years.”
Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup, pointed to the report’s importance for policy making, and said the work was “a natural fit” with Gallup’s mission: “providing leaders with the right information about what people say makes life worthwhile.”
