Finland named World’s Happiest Country for the sixth time in a row. The annual World Happiness report 2023 published today. Report says, Finland continues to occupy the top spot, for the sixth year in a row, with a score that is significantly ahead of all other countries.
The ranking of World’s Happiest country 2023
Denmark remains in the 2nd spot, with a confidence region bounded by 2nd and 4th. Among the rest of the countries in the top twenty, the confidence regions for their ranks cover five to ten countries.
Iceland is 3rd, and with its smaller sample size, has a confidence region from 2nd to 7th. Israel is in 4th position, up five positions from last year, with a confidence range between 2nd and 8th. The 5th through 8th positions are filled by the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland.
The top ten are rounded out by Luxembourg and New Zealand. Austria and Australia follow in 11th and 12th positions, as last year, both within the likely range of 8th to 16th. They are followed by Canada, up two places from last year’s lowest-ever ranking. The next four positions are filled by Ireland, the United States, Germany, and Belgium, all with ranks securely in the top twenty, as shown by the rank ranges.
The rest of the top 20 include Czechia, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania, 18th to 20th. The same countries tend to appear in the top twenty year after year, with 19 of this year’s top 20 also being there last year. The exception is Lithuania, which has steadily risen over the past six years, from 52nd in 2017 to 20th this year.
Word Happiness report 2023 summary
According to the report, Despite the general consistency among the top country scores, there have been many significant changes among the rest of the countries. Looking at changes over the longer term, many countries have exhibited substantial changes in average scores, and hence in country rankings, as shown in more detail in the Statistical Appendix, and as noted above for the Baltic countries.
The scores are based on the resident populations in each country, rather than their citizenship or place of birth. In World Happiness Report 2018 we split the responses between the locally and foreign-born populations in each country and found the happiness rankings to be essentially the same for the two groups. There was some footprint effect after migration, and some tendency for migrants to move to happier countries, so that among the 20 happiest countries in that report, the average happiness for the locally born was about 0.2 points higher than for the foreign-born.
Life evaluations have continued to be remarkably resilient, with global averages in the COVID-19 years 2020-2022 just as high as those in the pre-pandemic years 2017-2019. Finland remains in the top position, for the sixth year in a row. Lithuania is the only new country in the top twenty, up more than 30 places since 2017. War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey, with average life evaluations more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) than in the ten happiest countries.
This year’s report uses three measures to study the inequality of happiness. The first is the happiness gap between the top and the bottom halves of the population. This gap is small in countries where almost everyone is very unhappy, and in the top countries where almost no one is unhappy. More generally, people are happier living in countries where the happiness gap is smaller. Happiness gaps globally have been fairly stable, although there are growing gaps in Africa. The second and third are measures of misery—the share of the population having life evaluations of 4 and below, and the share rating the lives at 3 and below. Globally, both of these measures fell slightly during the three COVID-19 years.
The rest of the chapter helps to explain this resilience using four examples to suggest how trust and social support can support happiness during crises.
