Quality of Life

The Happiest Countries in 2026

World Happiness Report scores ranked across 36 countries with 10-year trends

7.54 / 10

Highest happiness in our 36-country set — 🇩🇰 Denmark (2025, ranked #3 globally out of 178)

← Least satisfiedMost satisfied →
Low
04
Below avg
45.5
Above avg
5.57
High
710+
#CountryHappiness
1🇩🇰 Denmark7.54
2🇸🇪 Sweden7.25
3🇳🇴 Norway7.24
4🇳🇱 Netherlands7.22
5🇮🇱 Israel7.19
6🇨🇭 Switzerland7.02
7🇳🇿 New Zealand7.00
8🇲🇽 Mexico6.97
9🇮🇪 Ireland6.93
10🇧🇪 Belgium6.93
11🇦🇺 Australia6.92
12🇩🇪 Germany6.88
13🇺🇸 United States6.82
14🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates6.82
15🇵🇱 Poland6.77
16🇨🇦 Canada6.74
17🇬🇧 United Kingdom6.69
18🇧🇷 Brazil6.63
19🇫🇷 France6.59
20🇸🇬 Singapore6.58
21🇮🇹 Italy6.57
22🇪🇸 Spain6.54
23🇻🇳 Vietnam6.43
24🇦🇷 Argentina6.43
25🇪🇪 Estonia6.41
26🇹🇭 Thailand6.30
27🇨🇱 Chile6.30
28🇯🇵 Japan6.13
29🇰🇷 South Korea6.04
30🇨🇴 Colombia6.04
31🇵🇹 Portugal6.03
32🇬🇷 Greece5.70
33🇭🇰 Hong Kong5.57
34🇹🇷 Turkey5.30
35🇿🇦 South Africa5.01
36🇮🇳 India4.54

This ranking uses the Cantril life-ladder score from the World Happiness Report, based on the Gallup World Poll. Respondents rate their current life from 0 (worst possible) to 10 (best possible). The latest year is 2025 and the global dataset covers 178 countries.

Scandinavia continues to dominate globally — Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway all in the top 10. What's interesting in our set: happiness doesn't perfectly track NLV. A high-tax Nordic country can score above a zero-tax jurisdiction when social trust and public goods matter more than take-home pay.

Happiness is not part of the NLV formula— it's a complementary signal. Use NLV for objective purchasing-power + QoL comparison, and this ranking for the subjective wellbeing angle.

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