The 2025 World Happiness Report unveiled an alarming drop for the United States, landing at its lowest position yet, accompanied by escalating social isolation and widening political divisions. In contrast, Nordic countries like Finland maintained their spot at the top of the ranking.
Released by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in collaboration with Gallup and the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the annual report scrutinizes factors such as health, economic condition, personal liberties, generosity, and the absence of corruption to appraise the happiness levels across 147 countries, using self-assessments from their populations.
Finland once again took the top spot, trailed by several other Nordic nations alongside Costa Rica, Norway, and a few others. On the opposite end, countries such as Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Yemen scored the lowest in the happiness assessment.
The US, positioned at 24th—slipping one place from the previous year—has continually seen a decrease in happiness, from a peak of 11th in 2012. A growing trend of Americans eating alone, which has increased by 53 percent since 2003, was highlighted as a significant contributor to the decline in happiness.
The rise in ‘deaths of despair’ in the US, in contrast to the global decline, further underscores the country’s challenges. The researchers proposed that this growing dissatisfaction may be linked to increased political polarization and diminished trust in others, with those experiencing low trust leaning more toward right-wing politics.
In stark contrast, countries like Mexico, which entered the top 10 happiest nations this year, demonstrated that factors such as shared meals and larger family households significantly bolster well-being. The report noted that the bonding over meals has as significant an impact as income or employment status.
The findings emphasize the importance of social cohesion and comprehensive social safety nets within countries with the highest well-being rankings.
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/20/finland-takes-top-spot-us-gets-lowest-ever-rank-in-world-happiness-report?traffic_source=rss
