Wellbeing and Mental Health

Scandinavia is still the happiest region in the world

image of Helskini, Finland

According to the World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest place in the world. Image: Unsplash/Veikko Venemies

Katharina Buchholz
Data Journalist, Statista
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Wellbeing and Mental Health?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Mental Health is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Denmark

  • A study has ranked the happiest countries in the world based on interviews carried out in spring 2020.
  • Scandinavia is still the world's happiest place, with Finland, Iceland and Denmark in the top 3 positions.
  • The ranks of other countries are revealed below.

Scandinavia is still the world's happy place, firmly holding on to the top 3 of the World Happiness Report in 2020. Finland, Iceland and Denmark were named as the world's three happiest countries in the study that is based on surveys by Gallup as well as developmental indicators.

Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, happiness scores did not change majorly around the world in 2020. The majority of interviews for the report was carried out during the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020.

Have you read?

Switzerland rose two ranks from 2019, coming in fourth. Germany even moved up ten ranks into seventh place. New Zealand is now the only non-European countries to make it into the top 10 of the happiest countries as Canada sank to rank 15.

The U.S. rose from rank 19 to rank 14, while it was downhill for the UK. The country tumbled from rank 14 to rank 18. Israel became the second highest ranking country outside of Europe in 11th place, while Taiwan scored highest in Asia (rank 19). The best-scoring country out of Africa was Nigeria in rank 59.

a chart ranking the happiest countries in the world, topped by Finland
When it comes to the happiest countries, Scandinavia tops the charts. Image: Statista
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

World Mental Health Day: How leaders can prioritize well-being in the workplace

Kate Whiting

October 4, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum