A new global report says that people in Finland are the happiest in the world. The northern European country is leading the world in happiness for the eighth year in a row.

Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 published Thursday.

Other Nordic countries are also once again at the top of the happiness rankings in the annual report published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. Besides Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden remain the top four and in the same order.

Country rankings were based on answers people give when asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

When it comes to decreasing happiness — or growing unhappiness —the United States has dropped to its lowest-ever position at 24, having previously peaked at 11th place in 2012. The report states that the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53% over the past two decades.

Nation Table

    • Kusimulkku@lemm.eeEnglish
      12·
      1 day ago

      Minnesota and Upper peninsula could be closest

      Many Finnish people historically immigrated to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Iron Range of northern Minnesota to work in the mining industry; much of the population in these regions is of Finnish descent.

      • anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        A lot of Mainers or northern New Englanders are like that too. My wife things the North Michiganders talk a lot compared to Mainers.