Greece slumped to 64th place in the 2024 World Happiness Report, according to an annual survey conducted by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. This marks a six-spot decline from its 58th place last year in the report, which was compiled by measuring the level of happiness in 143 countries.
Finland clinched the title of the world’s happiest country for the seventh consecutive year, while on the opposite end of the list, Afghanistan ranked as the least happy country in the world occupying 143rd spot.
Unsurprisingly, Scandinavian countries continue to dominate the top rankings, with Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden trailing behind Finland rounding off the top 4 happiest countries.
Interestingly, Israel which is in the middle of a war came in 5th, followed by the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Australia in the top 10.
The United States and Germany, after more than a decade, have fallen below the top 20 happiest countries, securing the 23rd and 24th positions respectively.
The decline in US rankings is also attributed to the ascent of other countries, especially in Eastern Europe. Conversely, Costa Rica and Kuwait have entered the top 20, claiming the 12th and 13th positions, respectively.
Eastern European countries such as Serbia, Bulgaria, and Latvia have reported notable improvements in the rankings since the 2023 report.
This year’s World Happiness report is the first to include separate data by age group, revealing concerning news about the satisfaction levels of young people in certain parts of the world.
Within each generation, life evaluations rise with age for those in the older generations and fall with age for the younger ones, with little age effect for those in between.
According to the report, the measurement of subjective well-being relies on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions (described in the report as positive and negative affect). The happiness rankings are based on life evaluations, such as the more stable measure of the quality of people’s lives, with the Gallup World Poll remaining the principal source of data in the survey, which asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and worst possible as a 0.
