The World’s Happiest Countries in 2023
![The World’s Happiest Countries in 2023](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.voronoiapp.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fvoronoi-The-Worlds-Happiest-Countries-in-2023-20240510125728.webp&w=3840&q=75)
Measuring subjective ideas like happiness and life satisfaction is tricky business.
Are wealth and prosperity legitimate measures of happiness? How about safety and health outcomes? In the West, we view democracy as a key component to happiness, yet there are countries under authoritarian rule that score high in the Happiness Index. Questions like these make “ranking happiness” a particularly challenging puzzle, but also one worth pursuing. If policymakers have a clearer picture of what conditions can foster happiness, they can enact policies that can improve the lives of people living their jurisdictions.
The map above is a global snapshot of life satisfaction around the world. It utilizes the World Happiness Report—an annual survey of how satisfied citizens are worldwide—to map out the world’s happiest and least happy countries.
To create the index the map is based on, researchers simply asked people how satisfied they are with their lives. Scores were assigned using these self-reported answers from people living within various countries, as well as quality of life factors. While there may be no perfect measure of happiness around the world, the report is a robust and transparent attempt to understand happiness at the global level.
See the full article on visualcapitalist.com
Dataset
Rank | Country | Score |
---|---|---|
#1 | Finland | 7.8 |
#2 | Denmark | 7.6 |
#3 | Iceland | 7.5 |
#4 | Israel | 7.5 |
#5 | Netherlands | 7.4 |
#6 | Sweden | 7.4 |
#7 | Norway | 7.3 |
#8 | Switzerland | 7.2 |
#9 | Luxembourg | 7.2 |
#10 | New Zealand | 7.1 |
#11 | Austria | 7.1 |
#12 | Australia | 7.1 |
#13 | Canada | 7 |
#14 | Ireland | 6.9 |
#15 | United States | 6.9 |
#16 | Germany | 6.9 |
#17 | Belgium | 6.9 |
#18 | Czechia | 6.8 |
#19 | United Kingdom | 6.8 |
#20 | Lithuania | 6.8 |
#21 | France | 6.7 |
#22 | Slovenia | 6.7 |
#23 | Costa Rica | 6.6 |
#24 | Romania | 6.6 |
#25 | Singapore | 6.6 |
#26 | UAE | 6.6 |
#27 | Taiwan | 6.5 |
#28 | Uruguay | 6.5 |
#29 | Slovakia | 6.5 |
#30 | Saudi Arabia | 6.5 |
#31 | Estonia | 6.5 |
#32 | Spain | 6.4 |
#33 | Italy | 6.4 |
#34 | Kosovo | 6.4 |
#35 | Chile | 6.3 |
#36 | Mexico | 6.3 |
#37 | Malta | 6.3 |
#38 | Panama | 6.3 |
#39 | Poland | 6.3 |
#40 | Nicaragua | 6.3 |
#41 | Latvia | 6.2 |
#42 | Bahrain | 6.2 |
#43 | Guatemala | 6.2 |
#44 | Kazakhstan | 6.1 |
#44 | Serbia | 6.1 |
#46 | Cyprus | 6.1 |
#47 | Japan | 6.1 |
#48 | Croatia | 6.1 |
#49 | Brazil | 6.1 |
#50 | El Salvador | 6.1 |
#51 | Hungary | 6 |
#52 | Argentina | 6 |
#53 | Honduras | 6 |
#54 | Uzbekistan | 6 |
#55 | Malaysia | 6 |
#56 | Portugal | 6 |
#57 | South Korea | 6 |
#58 | Greece | 5.9 |
#59 | Mauritius | 5.9 |
#60 | Thailand | 5.8 |
#61 | Mongolia | 5.8 |
#62 | Kyrgyzstan | 5.8 |
#63 | Moldova | 5.8 |
#64 | China | 5.8 |
#65 | Vietnam | 5.8 |
#66 | Paraguay | 5.7 |
#67 | Montenegro | 5.7 |
#68 | Jamaica | 5.7 |
#69 | Bolivia | 5.7 |
#70 | Russia | 5.7 |
#71 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 5.6 |
#72 | Colombia | 5.6 |
#73 | Dominican Republic | 5.6 |
#74 | Ecuador | 5.6 |
#75 | Peru | 5.5 |
#76 | Philippines | 5.5 |
#77 | Bulgaria | 5.5 |
#78 | Nepal | 5.4 |
#79 | Armenia | 5.3 |
#80 | Tajikistan | 5.3 |
#81 | Algeria | 5.3 |
#82 | Hong Kong SAR | 5.3 |
#83 | Albania | 5.3 |
#83 | Indonesia | 5.3 |
#85 | South Africa | 5.3 |
#86 | Congo | 5.3 |
#87 | North Macedonia | 5.3 |
#88 | Venezuela | 5.2 |
#89 | Laos | 5.1 |
#90 | Georgia | 5.1 |
#91 | Guinea | 5.1 |
#92 | Ukraine | 5.1 |
#93 | Ivory Coast | 5.1 |
#94 | Gabon | 5.1 |
#95 | Nigeria | 5 |
#96 | Cameroon | 5 |
#97 | Mozambique | 5 |
#98 | Iraq | 5 |
#99 | Palestine | 5 |
#100 | Morocco | 5 |
#101 | Iran | 5 |
#102 | Senegal | 4.9 |
#103 | Mauritania | 4.7 |
#104 | Burkina Faso | 4.6 |
#105 | Namibia | 4.6 |
#106 | T�rkiye | 4.6 |
#107 | Ghana | 4.6 |
#108 | Pakistan | 4.6 |
#109 | Niger | 4.5 |
#110 | Tunisia | 4.5 |
#111 | Kenya | 4.5 |
#112 | Sri Lanka | 4.4 |
#113 | Uganda | 4.4 |
#114 | Chad | 4.4 |
#115 | Cambodia | 4.4 |
#116 | Benin | 4.4 |
#117 | Myanmar | 4.4 |
#118 | Bangladesh | 4.3 |
#119 | Gambia | 4.3 |
#120 | Mali | 4.2 |
#121 | Egypt | 4.2 |
#122 | Togo | 4.1 |
#123 | Jordan | 4.1 |
#124 | Ethiopia | 4.1 |
#125 | Liberia | 4 |
#126 | India | 4 |
#127 | Madagascar | 4 |
#128 | Zambia | 4 |
#129 | Tanzania | 3.7 |
#130 | Comoros | 3.5 |
#131 | Malawi | 3.5 |
#132 | Botswana | 3.4 |
#133 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 3.2 |
#134 | Zimbabwe | 3.2 |
#135 | Sierra Leone | 3.1 |
#136 | Lebanon | 2.4 |
#137 | Afghanistan | 1.9 |
Data sources
Methodology: A nationally representative group of approximately 1,000 people is asked a series of questions relating to their life satisfaction, as well as positive and negative emotions they are experiencing. The life evaluation question is based on the Cantril ladder, wherein the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for a person (a score of 10/10) and on the flipside, the worst possible life (scored as 0/10). The main takeaway is that the scores result from self-reported answers by citizens of each of these countries. The results received a confidence interval of 95%, meaning that there is a 95% chance that the answers and population surveyed represent the average. As well, scores are averaged over the past three years in order to increase the sample size of respondents in each country. Limitations: Critics of the World Happiness Report point out that survey questions measure satisfaction with socioeconomic conditions as opposed to individual emotional happiness. As well, there are myriad cultural differences around the world that influence how people think about happiness and life satisfaction. Finally, there can be big differences in life satisfaction between groups within a country, which are averaged out even in a nationally representative group. The report does acknowledge inequality as a factor by measuring the “gap” between the most and least happy halves of each country.