Since 2012, the United Nations has released a World Happiness Report that shares the countries with residents who are most content with life where they live. The organization on Wednesday—which happened to be World Happiness Day—released its 2024 list, featuring Finland, Denmark and Iceland in the top three spots.
The report’s data is based on participant self-assessment in which a person polled indicates where on a ladder of 1 to 10 how happy they feel. From there, the researchers look into a variety of factors that might correlate with the self-reported happiness scores, such as social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and the absence of corruption.
Sweden and Israel round out the top five happiest countries, while Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo were ranked as the least happy. The United States, which was ranked as the 15th happiest country last year, dropped to number 23.
For the first time, researchers also provided ranking by age group. For under 30s, Lithuania is the happiest country. For those over age 60, Denmark is tops. The report also notes that “those born before 1965 are, on average, happier than those born since 1980. Among Millennials, evaluation of one’s own life drops with each year of age, while among Boomers, life satisfaction increases with age.”
