Molly Young

Nordic countries consistently dominate the top of the list. Finland has its well-publicized eight-year streak of happiness supremacy. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway are reliably in the top ten. The most miserable countries tend, not surprisingly, to be those stricken with poverty, conflict, corruption, and human rights violations.

Nordic countries consistently dominate the top of the list. Finland has its well-publicized eight-year streak of happiness supremacy. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and Norway are reliably in the top ten. The most miserable countries tend, not surprisingly, to be those stricken with poverty, conflict, corruption, and human rights violations.

Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Haiti... Between these two poles, you can see the shifting fates of nations. Poland and Portugal, for example, have each ascended nearly one full ladder rung since the survey began. The United States peaked at number 11 in the year 2012 and has tumbled since then. In mid-March, the 2025 World Happiness Report was released.

Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Haiti... Between these two poles, you can see the shifting fates of nations. Poland and Portugal, for example, have each ascended nearly one full ladder rung since the survey began. The United States peaked at number 11 in the year 2012 and has tumbled since then. In mid-March, the 2025 World Happiness Report was released.

It was the longest one to date, a 260-page PDF bursting with data. The United States had dropped one spot since the previous year to 24th place. Finland sustained its winning streak. The report was pounced upon with various levels of rigor by media outlets, including this one. The most surprising parts of the report slipped beneath notice.

It was the longest one to date, a 260-page PDF bursting with data. The United States had dropped one spot since the previous year to 24th place. Finland sustained its winning streak. The report was pounced upon with various levels of rigor by media outlets, including this one. The most surprising parts of the report slipped beneath notice.

Would you have guessed, for example, that Italy, number 40, is apparently less happy than El Salvador, number 37? Or that Saudi Arabia, number 32, is happier than France, number 33? Or that Israel is in the top 10? Or that Bhutan, the country whose own Gross National Happiness Index gave rise to the report, has been absent from the list since 2019, when it limped in at number 95?

Would you have guessed, for example, that Italy, number 40, is apparently less happy than El Salvador, number 37? Or that Saudi Arabia, number 32, is happier than France, number 33? Or that Israel is in the top 10? Or that Bhutan, the country whose own Gross National Happiness Index gave rise to the report, has been absent from the list since 2019, when it limped in at number 95?

And then there are the raw figures. Each country is ranked according to a score derived from the Cantrell ladder responses. Finland's current score is 7.736, while the United States measures 6.724, about a ladder rung lower. If you look at it another way, Americans are 87% as happy as Finns. That's not bad.

And then there are the raw figures. Each country is ranked according to a score derived from the Cantrell ladder responses. Finland's current score is 7.736, while the United States measures 6.724, about a ladder rung lower. If you look at it another way, Americans are 87% as happy as Finns. That's not bad.

What seems to bother American readers about the report is that it's a game we're not winning. Indeed, it's a game we're losing to our closest neighbors, Mexico, number 10, and Canada, number 18. Year after year, the PDFs track our downward trajectory past Lithuania and Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates.

What seems to bother American readers about the report is that it's a game we're not winning. Indeed, it's a game we're losing to our closest neighbors, Mexico, number 10, and Canada, number 18. Year after year, the PDFs track our downward trajectory past Lithuania and Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates.

If Americans are exceptional in our approach to happiness, it may have to do with an insistence on treating the matter as a glittering mystery, a thing requiring pilgrimage or a course at Harvard or Yale. Both schools have offered happiness classes to understand.

If Americans are exceptional in our approach to happiness, it may have to do with an insistence on treating the matter as a glittering mystery, a thing requiring pilgrimage or a course at Harvard or Yale. Both schools have offered happiness classes to understand.

It's a quandary we're tasked with solving, as with many quandaries in this country like taxes and health insurance and self-defense, on our own. In a land of maximal freedom, where the coffee cups are huge, we can just as easily imagine ourselves becoming billionaires or dying on a street corner. The span of the latter is as wide as our imaginations allow.

It's a quandary we're tasked with solving, as with many quandaries in this country like taxes and health insurance and self-defense, on our own. In a land of maximal freedom, where the coffee cups are huge, we can just as easily imagine ourselves becoming billionaires or dying on a street corner. The span of the latter is as wide as our imaginations allow.

All government buildings in Finland have a sauna on-site. Nationwide, there is more than one sauna for every two Finns. For obvious reasons, the sauna is somewhat over-indexed in happiness tourism literature. There is a specific phrase for the blissful drowsiness associated with time spent in a heated box, and a specific elf, thought to live between a sauna's wall and heating apparatus.

All government buildings in Finland have a sauna on-site. Nationwide, there is more than one sauna for every two Finns. For obvious reasons, the sauna is somewhat over-indexed in happiness tourism literature. There is a specific phrase for the blissful drowsiness associated with time spent in a heated box, and a specific elf, thought to live between a sauna's wall and heating apparatus.

The elf becomes angry if a sauna door is slammed. On my second day, I visited a place called Lola. It was my first and least representative sauna, in that it requires visitors to wear a swimsuit, irregular, costs 26 euros, expensive, and is an architectural marvel. A building that resembles a heap of rocks, with weathered pine planks arranged in faceted planes and concluding in a jagged terrace."

The elf becomes angry if a sauna door is slammed. On my second day, I visited a place called Lola. It was my first and least representative sauna, in that it requires visitors to wear a swimsuit, irregular, costs 26 euros, expensive, and is an architectural marvel. A building that resembles a heap of rocks, with weathered pine planks arranged in faceted planes and concluding in a jagged terrace."