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)
| # | Country | Happiness |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 7.54 |
| 2 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 7.25 |
| 3 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 7.24 |
| 4 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 7.22 |
| 5 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 7.19 |
| 6 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 7.02 |
| 7 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 7.00 |
| 8 | 🇲🇽 Mexico | 6.97 |
| 9 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 6.93 |
| 10 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 6.93 |
| 11 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 6.92 |
| 12 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 6.88 |
| 13 | 🇺🇸 United States | 6.82 |
| 14 | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | 6.82 |
| 15 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 6.77 |
| 16 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 6.74 |
| 17 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 6.69 |
| 18 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 6.63 |
| 19 | 🇫🇷 France | 6.59 |
| 20 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 6.58 |
| 21 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 6.57 |
| 22 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 6.54 |
| 23 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 6.43 |
| 24 | 🇦🇷 Argentina | 6.43 |
| 25 | 🇪🇪 Estonia | 6.41 |
| 26 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 6.30 |
| 27 | 🇨🇱 Chile | 6.30 |
| 28 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 6.13 |
| 29 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 6.04 |
| 30 | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 6.04 |
| 31 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 6.03 |
| 32 | 🇬🇷 Greece | 5.70 |
| 33 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 5.57 |
| 34 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 5.30 |
| 35 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 5.01 |
| 36 | 🇮🇳 India | 4.54 |
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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