To mark the UN’s International Day of Happiness on March 20, the World Happiness Index 2025 was released by the Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and an independent editorial board. While many countries improved their ranking on the World Happiness Index 2025, Finland remained the happiest country in the world followed closely by Denmark and Iceland. Interestingly, Finland has emerged as the happiest country for 8 years in a row. The European country securing such a ranking has indeed sent signals to the world that there should be a case study on it.
In the meanwhile, India has too improved its ranking in the World Happiness Index 2025 compared to last year. India is at 118th ranking as compared to 126 last year. Despite improvement in ranking, Indians are still unhappier than Pakistan which has been suffering economic issues, and also Ukraine which has been at war with Russia for many years. Below is a World Happiness Index 2025 Ranking with respect to India-
- Nepal- 92
- Pakistan- 109
- Niger- 110
- Ukraine- 111
- Morocco- 112
- Tunisia- 113
- Mauritania- 114
- Kenya- 115
- Uganda- 116
- Gambia- 117
- India- 118
- Sri Lanka- 133
- Bangladesh- 134
Which Country is the unhappiest?
Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world with World Happiness Index 2025 ranking 147. Afghanistan where Sharia has been imposed often remains in controversy over Taliban implying new and sevre rules against its people, especially on women. For instance, the Taliban has prohibited women from praying aloud in the presence of one another. Taliban has also made mandatory for Afghan women to wear full-body coverings, including face veils, when in public, no singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public (as their voices are considered intimate) and it prohibits women from looking at men to whom they are not related and vice versa.
Factors that were taken to prepare the World Happiness Index 2025
As per the official release, experts used responses from people in more than 140 nations to rank the world’s ‘happiest’ countries. Rankings are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life- Interdisciplinary experts from the fields of economics, psychology, sociology, and beyond then attempt to explain the variations across countries and over time using factors such as GDP, life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption. These factors help to explain the differences across nations, while the rankings themselves are based only on the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives.