20 happiest countries in the world in 2024

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Finland has done it again. The 2024 World Happiness Report has been released, and Finland has been named the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row.

However, the news was not so good for the US, which hit a new low. The United States did not even make the top 20 list. This is the first time that the ranking has fallen this much since the World Happiness Report was created in 2012.

This annual report ranks global happiness in more than 140 countries. The rankings use data from sources such as the Gallup World Poll and are based on six factors: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and the presence of corruption. Announced annually to commemorate the International Day of Happiness on 20 March, the program is a partnership between multiple outlets including the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Gallup and the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre.

Finland has been named the happiest country for the seventh year in a row.

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This year’s top 10 list is similar to previous rankings in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019, with many Nordic countries ranking highly. Denmark and Iceland once again took second and third place, followed by Sweden (fourth place). Norway was ranked 7th.

Last year, the U.S. ranked 15th, but by 2024, the U.S. has plummeted to 23rd place. Even new countries to the top 20 list, like Costa Rica and Lithuania, ranked higher. reason?Happiness is particularly low in the United States, especially among young people.

The list also looked at the happiest places broken down by age. What is the happiest country in the world for people under 30? Lithuania. The US didn’t do much better, ranking her 62nd among under 30s.

The winner for the over 60s is Denmark. The United States fared better in this age group, coming in 10th place.

In the United States, happiness levels have declined, especially among millennials.

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The report found that in countries such as Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain, older people are significantly happier than younger people. In Portugal and Greece, the opposite is true: younger people are happier than older people.

There was also data showing that children’s happiness levels were declining. “A synthesis of available data on the well-being of children and adolescents around the world documents a disconcerting decline, particularly in North America and Western Europe. In some parts of the world, children are already reaching middle age. “Given that we are experiencing what amounts to a crisis, we need an urgent policy response,” said Professor Jean-Emmanuel de Neve, Director of the Center for Wellbeing Research at the University of Oxford and Professor of Economics and Behavioral Sciences. . Said Business School and the editors of the World Happiness Report said in a release:

Feelings of loneliness are also a major trend, the report says. “There is widespread concern, particularly in the United States, about the emerging loneliness epidemic and its impact on physical and mental health,” the report’s authors wrote. Interestingly, it wasn’t the oldest residents who felt lonely. “North Americans are almost twice as likely to feel lonely as Millennials born before 1965.”

One of the big surprises this year was that Israel came in fifth place, despite its war with Hamas. However, the report’s authors say the rankings are based on three-year averages, which can skew the numbers. Israel has been in the top 10 in the Happiness Report since 2022. “If a major disaster occurs in a particular year, the impact on the rankings will depend on when the study was conducted, and the impact will be attenuated and averaged out within three years,” the report’s authors wrote. ing. “In the case of the October 7th attack on Israel and the ensuing war between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian investigation took place earlier in the year, and the Israeli investigation took place after the hostage-taking and for much of the ensuing war. It was done before it even started.”

At the bottom of the 2024 list is Afghanistan, once again named the world’s unhappiest country. Rounding out the list of the bottom five countries were Lebanon, Lesotho, Sierra Leone and Congo.