World Happiness Report 2025: Finland tops the list again. Where do India and Pakistan rank?
India ranked 118 out of 147 countries in The World Happiness Report, 2025, which was published on Thursday, March 20, by the Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
Finland emerged as the ‘happiest’ country yet again, followed closely by Denmark and Iceland, in the index that ranks countries according to the availability of various social, physical, and emotional support factors.
Afghanistan ranked the lowest owing to several Afghan women saying that their lives had become increasingly difficult, followed by Sierra Leone and Lebanon.
India’s lowest ranking was 144 on the list in 2012, while its scores peaked in 2022 at 94.
The study considers 6 explanatory factors for happiness: social support, GDP per capita, health life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption.
The study also maps whether responses indicated positive or negative emotions about the country.
India ranked high on scores of social support due to its high population, community-focused culture and practices of having larger families which live together.
However, the country scored the lowest on the freedom factor, which looks at whether people perceive that they have choice in their society and if the choices available lead to a satisfactory life.
Among India’s neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka was ranked at 133, Bangladesh at 134, Pakistan at 109, Nepal at 92 and China at 68.
While Western countries dominated the top 20, especially European nations, Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, ranking at 6th and 10th respectively.
The United States dropped to it’s lowest ever position at 24, due to growing unhappiness and loneliness. The United Kingdom also ranked at 23, it’s lowest score since 2017.
In this year’s issue, which looks at the ‘happiness’ factor in countries in 2024 based on polls conducted worldwide, the report focused on the impact of “caring and sharing” on people’s levels of contentment and satisfaction. As such, questions administered to those polled looked at whether people donated and whether people felt like they received support from their community.
“Like ‘mercy’ in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, caring is “twice-blessed” – it blesses those who give and those who receive. In this report, we investigate both of these effects: the benefits to the recipients of caring behaviour and the benefits to those who care for others.”