Canada slips to 18th in world happiness rankings

A woman enjoys a sunny and frosty day on the embankment of the South Harbour in Helsinki, Finland, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

As loneliness and pessimism take root around the world, a new report has found that Canada’s global ranking for happiness is slipping.

Canada ranked as the 18th happiest country in the world last year, according to the 2025 World Happiness Report, down from 15th in 2023 and fifth in 2011. That drop coincided with a significant decrease in self-reported quality of life among surveyed Canadians, to roughly 6.8 out of 10 in 2024 from 7.5, 13 years earlier.

Pulling in data from thousands of Gallup survey responses across 147 countries and regions, the report’s rankings were based on how people in the country rated their own life and circumstances, averaged over three years and supported by economic and psychological analysis from experts. Key factors included per-capita GDP, health and life expectancy, social connections and perceptions about their country.

“Happiness isn’t just about wealth or growth — it’s about trust, connection and knowing people have your back," Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, told The Associated Press. “If we want stronger communities and economies, we must invest in what truly matters: each other.”

Following this year’s theme of “caring and sharing,” among the report’s key findings were widespread pessimism “about the benevolence of others.” The report cited studies where researchers dropped wallets on the street in cities around the world and found that people were far more likely to return the wallets than expected among those surveyed.

Learning that fact – that the world is kinder than you expect – can be helpful on its own, the report says.

“There is a wealth of evidence about the extent of caring behaviour around the world,” the report reads. “Our wellbeing depends on our perceptions of others’ benevolence, as well as their actual benevolence. Since we underestimate the kindness of others, our wellbeing can be improved by receiving information about their true benevolence.”

Loneliness was another challenge identified in the research, especially among young people. Researchers found in some regions that larger households of four to five people were associated with the most happiness, but that as recently as 2023, 19 per cent of young adults globally said they had “no one they could count on for social support,” up nearly 40 per cent from 2006.

Gestures as simple as sharing a meal were associated with lower levels of loneliness, and could potentially contribute to well-being overall, the research showed.

The rankings

Leading the pack this past year with a score of 7.74 was Finland, which has ranked the highest in reports since 2017. Also in the top 10 are Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg and Mexico.

Among G7 countries, Canada leads in happiness, followed by Germany (6.75), the United Kingdom (6.73), United States (6.72), France (6.59), Italy (6.42) and Japan (6.15).

“In general, the western industrial countries are now less happy than they were between 2005 and 2010,” the 2025 report reads. “Three western countries had drops exceeding 0.5 on the 0–10 scale (the United States, Switzerland, and Canada) putting them among the fifteen largest losers.”

In descending order, the countries ranked lowest for happiness in the most recent data include Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

You can view the full list of rankings and scores in the table below:

With files from The Associated Press