March 22, 2025
The latest “Happiness Report” ranks Iranians at the very top—of the bottom third. Iran is ranked 99th of the 147 countries that were measured.
The happiest country in the world—for the eighth year in a row—is Finland. And the Scandinavians seem to have something of a monopoly on happiness. The five Scandinavian states are ranked first, second, third, fourth and seventh.
The other countries in the top 10 are the Netherlands (5), Costa Rica (6), Israel (8), Luxembourg (9) and Mexico (10).
Canada ranks 18th and the United States came in 24th—the lowest ranking the US has scored since the rankings began in 2012, when the US came in at 11th place..
The happiest Muslim-majority country was the UAE in 21st place. Iran came in 17th of the 31 Muslim-majority countries in the survey.
The unhappiest country in the world was Afghanistan—and it was very, very unhappy. Its raw score was less than half that of Sierra Leon, which placed next-to-last in the rankings. Lebanon was third from the bottom.
The World Happiness Report, assembled by Oxford University, examines such matters as wealth, life expectancy, corruption, freedom and other indicators, including the results of a survey by Gallup that asks people around the world to assess their living conditions.
The report said that happiness rises with household size up to four, and declines in larger households. People living alone are notably less happy than those living with others.
