World Happiness Report 2026: Finland happiest nation for ninth time, India ranks 116th

Heavy social media use is harming younger folks’s well-being in lots of international locations, in response to a U.N.-backed World Happiness report launched on Thursday (March 18, 2026), which additionally ranked Finland because the world’s happiest nation for the ninth consecutive 12 months.

This 12 months’s World Happiness Report highlighted the affect of social media as many international locations impose or mull legislative restrictions on social media use for younger folks.

This 12 months as effectively, Nordic international locations lead the happiness rankings.

High ten international locations within the World Happiness Report 2026

• Finland

• Iceland

• Denmark

• Costa Rica

• Sweden

• Norway

• Netherlands

• Israel

• Luxembourg

• Switzerland

Costa Rica’s rise to fourth marks the very best ever rating for a Latin American nation.

Among the many 147 international locations featured within the report, India ranks 116th, a slight enchancment from its 118th place in 2025.

The report highlighted how life evaluations amongst below 25-year-olds in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have dropped considerably over the previous decade, and steered that lengthy hours spent scrolling via social media is a key consider that pattern. In contrast, younger folks in different components of the world felt higher about their lives.

The report attributes Finland’s constant high rating together with different Northern European international locations to a mixture of wealth, its equal distribution, having a welfare state that protects folks from the dangers of recessions, and a wholesome life expectancy.

As in earlier years, nations in or close to zones of main battle stay on the foot of the rankings. Afghanistan is ranked because the unhappiest nation once more, adopted by Sierra Leone and Malawi in Africa.

Ten unhappiest international locations embrace (rankings from 138 to 147):

• Tanzania

• Egypt

• DR Congo

• Lebanon

• Yemen

• Botswana

• Zimbabwe

• Malawi

• Sierra Leone

• Afghanistan

Six components for analysis of happiness rating

• GDP per capita

• Life expectancy

• Social assist

• Freedom to make life selections

• Generosity

• Perceptions of corruption

Nation rankings had been primarily based on solutions given by round 100,000 folks in 140 international locations and territories who had been requested to charge their very own lives. The research was accomplished in partnership with the analytics agency Gallup and the U.N. Sustainable Improvement Options Community.

Report highlights social media’s destructive affect

The report stated the destructive correlation between well-being and intensive social media use is especially regarding amongst teenage women. For instance, it stated that 15-year-old women who use social media for 5 hours or extra reported a drop in life satisfaction, in comparison with others who use it much less.

Younger individuals who use social media for lower than one hour per day report the very best ranges of well-being, researchers stated, increased than those that don’t use social media in any respect.

The 2026 rankings mark the second 12 months in a row that not one of the English-speaking international locations seem within the high 10. The USA is at twenty third place, Canada is at twenty fifth and Britain at twenty ninth.