Finland is world's happiest country, India slightly improves its happiness quotient with 118th position

Released on the UN's International Day of Happiness, the report assesses the quality of life in over 140 countries based on feedback collected from the residents.

While India has improved its rank by a few notches, both the UK and the US declined to 23rd and 24th positions respectively – the lowest-ever rank for the latter.

Latin America’s Costa Rica and Mexico made it to the top 10 for the first time.
 

The report evaluates various factors such as social support, health, freedom, generosity, perception of corruption, and gross domestic product (GDP) to determine the happiness levels of 147 countries, Fortune reported.

Using a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents the best possible life imaginable, Finland scored an impressive average of 7.74, securing its position as the happiest nation globally.

Finland is followed closely by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

These countries too have maintained their high ranks in happiness reports, owing to their strong social support systems, high standard of living, and commitment to work-life balance.

Interestingly, Costa Rica and Mexico have bagged spots in the top 10, securing the 6th and 10th ranks respectively.

On the other hand, the United States dropped to its lowest ranking at 24th place.  The United Kingdom is ranked at 23.

Top 10 happiest countries in the world

Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Sweden
Netherlands
Costa Rica
Norway
Israel
Luxembourg
Mexico

India's rank

India improved its rank by few notches. Photo: Daniel Stiel/Unsplash

India made some improvement in its happiness quotient by moving from 126th position in 2024 to 118 in the latest World Happiness Report, 2025.

However, India is still behind several conflict-affected countries, including Ukraine, Mozambique, and Iraq.

Interestingly, India excelled in social support, thanks to its strong community-focused culture and tradition of larger families living together.

However, India scored poorly on the freedom factor, which assesses whether individuals feel free to lead lives with their own choices.

Among India's neighboring countries, Nepal is ranked 92, followed by Pakistan at 109, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh ranked further lower at 133 and 134, respectively.

Some key findings out of the data:

First, people are much too pessimistic about the benevolence of others. For example, when wallets were dropped in the street by researchers, the proportion of returned wallets was far higher than people expected. This is hugely encouraging.

Second, our wellbeing depends on our perceptions of others’ benevolence, as well as their actual benevolence. Since we underestimate the kindness of others, our wellbeing can be improved by receiving information about their true benevolence.

Third, when society is more benevolent, the people who benefit most are those who are least happy. As a result, happiness is more equally distributed in countries with higher levels of expected benevolence.

Finally, benevolence increased during COVID-19 in every region of the world. People needed more help and others responded. This ‘benevolence bump’ has been sustained since then. Despite a fall from 2023 to 2024, benevolent acts are still about 10% above their pre-pandemic levels.

Benevolence also brings benefits to those doing the caring and sharing. This works best if the motivation is to help others (rather than to feel good yourself), if the act is voluntary, and if it has an obvious positive impact on the beneficiary. All this is shown in the report, where the usual country rankings of happiness are supplemented by rankings for benevolent acts and expected wallet return.