India slightly happier than last year, Finland stays happiest

Finland tops the list on the World Happiness Report 2025 for the eighth year in a row. PIC/AFP

India made slight improvement in its happiness quotient, up from 126 in 2024 to 118 this year, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 published Thursday. Surprisingly, India is unhappier than conflict-affected countries like Ukraine, Mozambique, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Gambia and Venezuela.

Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row. Other Nordic countries are also once again at the top of the happiness rankings in the annual report published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. Besides Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden remain the top four and in the same order.

Country rankings were based on answers people give when asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Researchers say that beyond health and wealth, some factors that influence happiness sound deceptively simple: sharing meals with others, having somebody to count on for social support, and household size. In Mexico and Europe, for example, a household size of four to five people predicts the highest levels of happiness, the study said.

When it comes to decreasing happiness - or growing unhappiness - the United States has dropped to its lowest-ever position at 24, having previously peaked at 11th place in 2012. The report states that the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 per cent over the past two decades. Afghanistan is again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world, with Afghan women saying their lives are especially difficult.

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