The News
The US has slumped to its lowest position ever in the annual World Happiness Report, dropping to 24th place in the 2025 ranking.
Predictably, the Nordic nations dominate the rankings, with Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden maintaining the top four spots. Mexico and Costa Rica were new entrants to the top 10 happiest countries this year, while Afghanistan, which was the least happy country, hit a historic low in the report.
The report’s findings — powered by Gallup World Poll data and other sources and analyzed by leading experts in wellbeing science — noted that the US’ happiness drop is linked with a decline in social trust, and a rise in dining alone. Eating with people is closely correlated with wellbeing, the report added, a habit that has diminished drastically in the US alongside the rise of single-person households.
The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the World Happiness Report’s Editorial Board.
This decline in happiness “explains a large share in the rise in political polarisation and votes against ‘the system,’” the report said. Among unhappy people, low-trust individuals are likely to turn to the far right, while high-trust individuals are more inclined to vote for the far left.
While deaths of despair, preventable deaths due to suicide, alcohol abuse, or drug overdoses, have dropped in much of the world, the US has experienced the world’s greatest increase in premature deaths from 2000-2019.
Semafor was in conversation with officials from some of the world’s happiest countries, as well as decision-makers and leaders to discuss the World Happiness Report’s key themes around kindness and generosity and policies to improve social connections and wellbeing.
The View From The United States
Trust in others has dropped to its lowest level in the US in 50 years, with Donald Trump voters tending not to trust strangers regardless of their age or educational background, according to the report’s findings.
Since 2005, the US’ life evaluations have dropped significantly, the report said, driven in large part by a decline in wellbeing among young Americans. Almost one in seven children in the US has a mental or behavioral issue, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman from Floria who is now on the board of nonprofit group Coalition to Empower our Future, said addressing the issue was “going to require a broad effort,” including expanding the social safety net for young people, addressing peer pressure and bullying, and supporting families economically.
Hilary Silver, a sociology professor at George Washington University, argued that US civil society has been limited through a drastic curtailing of public space. “We don’t have a public square where everyone can assemble and meet across differences.”
The View From The Democrats
In Western countries, research has shown that unhappy people have less faith in political parties and the political system and therefore are more likely to agree with authoritarian ideas and favor populist leaders: Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016 was linked to low life satisfaction in the US. This has made it challenging for centrist political forces to regroup, as dissatisfied voters tend to turn to far-left or far-right parties.
Under Trump, the center right has been “virtually silenced” in the Republican Party, E.J. Dionne, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution said, but among Democrats there is visible fighting between the center left and left.
The key to Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, Dionne argued, was that he “rallied a significant part of the center, with the center-left, and the left.” The only way for Democrats to challenge Trump effectively is to bring those two factions together, he said.
The View From Finland
For many Finns, the reaction to being ranked the world’s happiest country for the eighth time in a row will be, “Oh, really, again?” Finland’s Ambassador to the U.S. Leena-Kaisa Mikkola told Semafor. “It’s a nice surprise each time.”
Finnish people are “not really happy,” she said, but “content.” Acknowledging that Finland was not immune to the regional geopolitical instability owing to the war in Ukraine, Mikkola said, “We are concerned about the fate of [Ukraine],” given the broader repercussions in Europe, but added that “we have always been prepared for more difficult times…because of our location on the map.”
She said that Finland’s welfare society has ensured that trust has not only remained in the country “even during these difficult times globally and in Europe,” but grown. The reason for that is partly cultural, she said, and because it’s easier to maintain a high level of trust in a smaller and more homogenous country like Finland.
The View From Iceland
At the core of Iceland’s consistent position as one of the world’s happiest countries is its adaptability, the country’s ambassador to the US Svanhildur Hólm Valsdóttir told Semafor. “We are so used to things changing… the weather changes every 15 minutes.. We just adapt to it.”
But she said that Iceland, a NATO nation, has always been more vulnerable to geopolitical instability, given that it does not have a military. She said that the war in Ukraine has increasingly sparked discussions in Iceland about increasing defense expenses now more than ever.
Valsdóttir suggested the US could “increase women’s participation in everything” to move up the happiness rankings, noting that Reykjavik maintains a “heavily subsidized day care system” so women don’t have to choose between having a family and having a career.
The View From Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s ambassador to the US, Catalina Crespo-Sancho, compared the country — which at 6th place was a new entrant to the top 10 happiest countries this year — to the humble sloth: “If you look at sloths, they’re very slow, yes, but nobody wants to eat them, right? They do not want to eat anyone or any of the other animals in the forest. They get along with everyone.”
The Central American country does not have an army meaning there is more money to be spent on “education, social services, health access,” Crespo-Sancho said. The country’s army was abolished in 1949 and redirected its budget to healthcare and schools, making it one of only a handful of countries without a standing military.
Costa Rica’s rise in the happiness rankings is also boosted by its environmental protections, well-functioning communities, and its ability to adjust to a growing number of migrants, which make up 20% of the country. “You don’t hear about Costa Ricans having issues with migrants at all, because we adapt, and we work together,” the ambassador said.
When asked what the US could learn from Costa Rica, the diplomat emphasized that good education, a robust health care system, maintaining peace at home and with other countries, and developing good social connections have been vital for the country.