World Happiness Report 2026

In North America and Western Europe, young people are much less happy than 15 years ago. Over the same period, social media use has greatly increased. Many people blame social media for this fall in happiness, but does this hypothesis stand the test of rigorous scientific analysis?

The World Happiness Report is the world’s foremost publication on global wellbeing and how to improve it.

We combine open-access data from over 140 countries with high-quality analysis by world-leading researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines.

The world’s happiest countries

Our global happiness ranking is based on a single question that asks people to evaluate the quality of their life on a 0–10 scale. Finland has topped the rankings since 2018. How does your country compare?

In-depth analysis

Since 2012, we’ve published over 100 chapters, exploring wellbeing effects across a wide range of themes and regions. Whatever topics you’re interested in, you’re sure to discover something new and surprising.