Ranked: The World's Happiest Countries Over Time (2019–2024)

What We’re Showing

This infographic ranks the 10 happiest countries from 2019–2024, based on happiness scores from the World Happiness Report.  

The World Happiness Report is an annual publication that ranks global happiness based on life evaluations, social support, freedom, GDP per capita, and other well-being indicators, using data from the Gallup World Poll and additional sources. 

Read the methodology in the Data Sources tab for more information.

Key Takeaways

• Finland and Denmark have been the world’s two happiest countries for six years in a row, respectively. 
• Overall, Nordic countries have consistently been among the top 10, with Iceland and Sweden climbing up the rankings. 
• Costa Rica has seen a steady climb from the 15th spot in 2019 to 6th in 2024. Meanwhile, Switzerland dropped from 3rd to 13th over the same period. 
• Among the top 10, Mexico has seen the biggest jump from 25th in 2023 to number 10 in 2024. 
• Israel has seen a turbulent shift in happiness rankings, rising from 14th in 2019 to 4th in 2022, before dropping to 8th in 2024. However, it remains among the happiest countries in the world.