Romania’s Ranking in the World Happiness Report
Finland remains the happiest country in the world, while the US ranks at the lowest level.
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Finland remains the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row, according to the annual UN happiness report released Thursday, which places the United States at its lowest ranking ever.
Romania fell three places from last year to 35th in the ranking, which surveyed 147 countries.
The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012, when it came in at 11th, its best ranking.
Sharing meals “is strongly linked to well-being,” the authors write, noting that “the number of people eating alone in the U.S. has increased by 53 percent over the past two decades.”
By 2023, about one in four Americans said they had eaten alone the night before, according to the report.
“The growing number of people eating alone is one of the reasons for the decline in well-being in the United States,” the report notes.
The United States is also one of the few countries to see an increase in “deaths of despair” (suicide or excessive alcohol, drug use, etc.), at a time when such deaths are declining in most countries.
The report looks at the behavior of populations around the world in 2022-2024 and is therefore not related to the turmoil caused by Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
All Nordic countries remain in the top 10, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden following closely behind Finland, which has slightly widened the gap with second-place Denmark.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, in sixth and tenth place respectively.
Afghanistan, engulfed in a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2021, was once again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world.
France came in just 33rd, well ahead of Switzerland (13th), Belgium (14th) and Canada (18th).
The happiness ranking is based on a three-year average of personal assessments of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption. “It seems that Finns are relatively satisfied with their lives,” Frank Martela, an assistant professor specializing in well-being and happiness research at Aalto University in Espoo, near Helsinki, told AFP.
This could be largely explained by the fact that Finns live in a “rather well-functioning society,” he added.
“Democracy works well, we have free elections, freedom of speech and low levels of corruption” which contribute to “national well-being,” he continued.
All Nordic countries have relatively strong social protection systems, with parental leave, unemployment benefits and largely universal healthcare.
In this year’s report, the authors say they have new evidence that acts of generosity and belief in the goodness of others are “significant predictors of happiness, even more so than earning a higher salary.”
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