These are the happiest countries

Although happiness appears as a very individual state, there is still a report that shows every year where the happiest people live. It is all about the satisfaction of the people. But what does happiness actually mean? And how happy are the Germans?

For the eighth time in a row, the Finns get the first place in the world happiness report. Nordic friends come after them: Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. Fifth place this year Netherlands. Costa Rica (6) and Mexico (10) for the first time in the top 10. The Switzerland What remains the happiest German -speaking country, but continues to slip from 9th to 13 – three years ago, the Confederates were still in 4th place. Austria also loses and ends up three ranks further back than in the previous year in position 17. Germany improves from 24 to 22.

List of the happiest countries in the world 2025

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
11. Australia
12. New Zealand
13. Switzerland
14. Belgium
15. Ireland
16. Lithuania
17. Austria
18. Canada
19. Slovenia
20. Czech Republic
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Germany
23. Great Britain
24. USA
25. Belize

How is the global lucky report raised?

The world happiness report is made every year from an interdisciplinary team of researchers around the Wellbebeng Research Center from the University of Oxford World happiness day on March 20th published. Based on subjective assessments, he provides an insight into how the satisfaction and the perceived quality of life of people around the world are. The assessment of very different factors such as national economic performance, health, the feeling of freedom, the generosity of people and the perception of corruption are included. Trust within the community also plays an important role.

This time the researchers take an explicit look at it What effects the caring coexistence and shared sharing on people's happiness. One of her knowledge: trust in the friendliness of others is much more connected to happiness than previously assumed – and people are much nicer together than you think.

Measure: Who relies on the fact that his lost wallet is brought back?

Now everyone defines the term happiness in their own way. Among other things, the researchers make happiness on an experiment on the question of how strongly people in the respective countries can use to give others back their lost wallets. The northern countries are also great in this. At the same time, the benevolence of others is generally too pessimistic at the experiment worldwide.

No pessimism in Germany: two places advanced

Speaking of pessimism: In general, it is currently easy to get the feeling in Germany that the mood is bad. The happiness report does not confirm this perception: the Federal Republic climbs in the annual comparison Two places, including the quality of life averaged over three years on a scale from 0 to 10, has improved slightly to 6.75.

Many smaller EU countries such as Ireland, Belgium or Lithuania still leave Germany behind – there is Great Britain (23), Poland (26), France (33), Spain (38) and Italy (40) ahead of the larger European nations.

Younger most unfortunate: USA worst placement ever

Germany is also overtaking this year USAwho take their worst placement so far with 24th place. « The USA, Canada and other countries in the English -speaking world are in a general downward trend, which is particularly powered by the fact that the young people become the least happy group, » explains economist John F. Helliwell from the University of British Columbia, one of the founding fathers of the world happiness report.

This decline in satisfaction also has political consequences: that decreasing feeling of happiness And falling social trust in the USA and in parts of Europe are an important reason for increasing political polarization and votes against « the system », the report says. Helliwell summarizes it as follows: « Dissatisfaction leads to polarization, and polarization means that people no longer listen to each other and use other sources for facts and opinions, which in turn leads to further polarization. » (with dpa)