World Happiness Report

@worldhappiness.report

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The world’s foremost publication on global happiness: a partnership of Gallup, the Wellbeing Research Centre, and UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Page titled 'Flourishing is contagious: evidence that cultivating wellbeing in one person lifts the wellbeing and performance of others'. Authors: Richard J. Davidson Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison Matthew J. Hirshberg Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Page titled 'From wellbeing budgets to wellbeing outcomes: lessons from New Zealand'. Authors: Arthur Grimes Victoria University of Wellington and Motu Research Conal Smith Kōtātā Insight and Auckland University of Technology Stephanié Rossouw Auckland University of Technology Talita Greyling University of Johannesburg
Graphic titled ‘Our 2027 author team, Happiness and public policy.’ Users are encouraged to swipe to explore.
Photo of Richard Layard. Headline reads “’Meet the minds behind WHR 2027”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for July 2026.
The structure of the social media use problem appears to be similar. Bursztyn et al. show that product traps exist whenever the value of relevant products stems in whole, or in large part, from the fact that people would lose out from non-use or non-consumption, on the assumption that other people are using or consuming those products. The key point is that many social media users wish the platform they use did not exist and would even be willing to pay to put it out of existence.
Graphic titled “There’s a party next Saturday, and many of your friends are going.”, with the subheading “What will you do?”. Users are encouraged to swipe to explore.
Graphic titled “Does social media use make people happy?”, with the subheading “Three empirical studies raise serious doubts”. Users are encouraged to swipe to explore.
Quote card reads “I met so many people that work on similar topics and have the same hope for giving wellbeing, and social capital, a chance.”
Quote card reads “Sharing the chapters made them come to life and allowed a exchange of knowledge which 
– in a niche research field – is really valuable.”
Graphic titled “Considering submitting a chapter proposal for WHR 2027?”. Users are encouraged to swipe to hear from previous authors.
Bar graph presenting the % of US youth who wish social media platforms didn’t exist. Percentages for each platform presented: X (Twitter) 50% TikTok 47% Snapchat 43% Facebook 37% Instagram 34% Smartphones 21% Messaging apps 19% The internet 17% Netflix 17% YouTube 15% The source of the graph is Harris Poll (2024), and presented in Figure 3.1 of World Happiness Report 2026, for which a full citation is provided.
Photo of Westminster, with the heading 'Happiness and Public Policy'. The. subtitle reads 'World Happiness Report 2027'.
Photo of a child in a crowd. Headline reads “Happiness and public policy”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for May 2026.
Graph indicating the level of social media use across six regions. The data is compiled from students completing the OECD PISA survey (2022) and presented in Figure 5.1 of World Happiness Report 2026. A full citation is provided. In Asia: 8.9% no social media 23.2% < 1 hour 34.5% 1-2 hours 18.1% 3-4 hours 8.3% 5-6 hours 6.9% 7+ hrs Central and Eastern Europe: 6.2% no social media 20.9% < 1 hour 35.9% 1-2 hours 20.7% 3-4 hours 9.6% 5-6 hours 6.7% 7+ hrs In English-speaking countries: 4.7% no social media use 16.2% < 1 hour 38.1% 1-2 hours 23.7% 3-4 hours 10.5% 5-6 hours 6.8% 7+ hrs Latin America: 9.9% no social media use 18.4% < 1 hour 26.3% 1-2 hours 21.2% 3-4 hours 12.1% 5-6 hours 12.1% 7+ hrs Middle East & North Africa: 15.0% no social media use 19.8% < 1 hour 26.9% 1-2 hours 18.1% 3-4 hours 10.7% 5-6 hours 9.5% 7+ hrs Western Europe: 5.0% no social media use 17.6% < 1 hour 41.4% 1-2 hours 22.3% 3-4 hours 8.8% 5-6 hours 4.9% 7+ hrs
Image of Prof Jonathan Haidt, author of World Happiness Report 2026, alongside the text: “The average US teen now spends nearly five hours per day on social media (which includes roughly 2 hours on YouTube, 1.5 hours on TikTok, and 1 hour on Instagram).”
Coefficients presented under the title “Social media platforms and positive affect” Each line represents a different social media platform, with their logos displayed. The coefficients are: Whatsapp: 0.040** Facebook: 0.055*** X: -0.006 Instagram: -0.010 TikTok: -0.032 The source of the graph is ENBIARE (2021), presented in Figure 2.14 from World Happiness Report 2026, published in Chapter 2 and of which a full citation is provided.
4. Engagement with disconfirmatory evidence Reports which engage with disconfirmatory evidence demonstrate better evidence governance than those which construct apparent consensus through selective emphasis. When research yields mixed results, rigorous work acknowledges this complexity rather than highlighting only supportive evidence.
Six practices for rigorous evidence synthesis. Users are encouraged to swipe to explore.
Coefficients presented under the title “Social media platforms and life satisfaction. Each line represents a different social media platform, with their logos displayed. The coefficients are: Whatsapp: 0.106*** Instagram: 0.076*** Facebook: 0.038*** LinkedIn: 0.018 YouTube: 0.014 X: 0.015 TikTok: 0.013 The source of the graph is Latinobarometro (2023-2024), published in the chapter Gallup World Poll, presented in Figure 2.15 from World Happiness Report 2026, published in Chapter 2 and of which a full citation is provided.
Bar chart presented under the title “Top Countries by Life Evaluation, 2023-2025”. Subtitle reads: “Finland remains the world’s happiest country for the ninth successive year. Costa Rica’s fourth position brings Latin America into the top five for the first time.” Bars representing the three-year average life evaluation for Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg, and Switzerland are presented. Different colours within each bar represent how much of each country’s life evaluation score can be explained by: GDP per capita; social support; healthy life expectancy; freedom to make life choices; generosity; and perceptions of corruption. The remainder is explained by dystopia at a value of 1.16, plus a residual value. The source of the graph is the Gallup World Poll, presented in Figure 2.1 from World Happiness Report 2026, published in the chapter “International evidence on happiness and social media”, of which a full citation is provided.
Graphic titled “Heavy social media use”. Heavy social media use appears to be contributing to the drop in wellbeing among young people in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, especially among girls. One international survey of 15-year-olds in nearly 50 countries suggests heavy social media use is associated, on average, with a significant drop in wellbeing among the students surveyed, though any effect is highly dependent on the type of social media platform being used, how it is used, as well as demographic factors such as gender and socio-economic status.
Graphic titled “Key Findings World Happiness Report 2026”. A call to action encourages users to swipe to explore.
Image of a child sat on steps outside, scrolling on their phone. Headline reads “Happiness and social media”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for March 2025.
Graphic by the World Happiness Report presented under the title ‘Thank you to our partners’. The graphic includes logos for: Gallup; the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford; the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network; the University of British Columbia; the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics and Political Science; the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Earth Institute, Columbia University; Simon Fraser University; the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies; Xi’an Jiatong-Liverpool University; Ajinomoto; Bloom Wellbeing Fund; Blue Zones; Fondazione Ernesto Illy; Glico; and illy caffé.
Join the launch of #WHR2026
Photo of two children hugging and laughing. Headline reads “’Revisiting World Happiness Report 2026”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for March 2026.
Graphic titled “Social media and wellbeing in the Middle East and North Africa”. Below is a subtitle: “Working in partnership with the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS)”. Authors of this chapter title are then listed: Martijn Burger EHERO, Erasmus University Rotterdam Talita Greyling School of Economics, University of Johannesburg Stephanie Rossouw School of Social Science and Humanities, Auckland University of Technology Francesco Sarracino STATEC Research Fengyu Wu STATEC Research
Graphic titled “Adolescent life satisfaction and social media use: gender differences in an international dataset”. Below the authors of this chapter title are listed: Jean Twenge Department of Psychology, San Diego State University Alex Diomino Department of Psychology, San Diego State University Alana Rio Department of Psychology, San Diego State University
Graphic titled “Meet the WHR 2026 Authors, Happiness and Social Media”. A call to action encourages users to swipe to explore.
Coming Soon... World Happiness Report 2026 Happiness and Social Media Thursday 19 March worldhappiness.report
Photo of five children alongside the quote: the best predictor for adult life satisfaction is subjective wellbeing and emotional health during childhood.
Photo of a lighthouse at sunset. Headline reads “’Measuring happiness? Less is more”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for February 2026.
Image of John Helliwell, Editor of the World Happiness Report, alongside the quote: “If the science of wellbeing is to have a meaningful impact on policy-making, it must facilitate policy analysis. This requires a single outcome variable which is then explained by all the relevant factors.”
Graphic promoting the ‘AI and the Future of Wellbeing’ virtual summit, organised by the International Positive Psychology Association. The summit is from March 23-27, 2026.
Bar chart presented under the title “Life Evaluation and Sharing of Meals”. Subtitle reads: “People who shared just one meal in the past week have notably higher life evaluations (5.2) than those who ate all meals alone (4.9).” The chart plots number of meals shared per week from 0 to 14 on the x-axis, against average life evaluation on a truncated scale from 0 to 7 on the y-axis. In general, we see an upward trend – albeit a subtle, uneven one – in average life evaluations as the number of shared meals increases. The source of the graph is the Gallup World Poll (2022-2023), presented in Figure 3.5 from World Happiness Report 2025, published in the chapter “Sharing meals with others: How sharing meals supports happiness and social connections”, of which a full citation is provided.
Image of Prof Jeffrey D. Sachs, Editor of the World Happiness Report, alongside the quote: “Happiness is rooted in trust, kindness, and social connection. It is up to us to translate this vital truth into positive action.”
People sat around a dining table playing a game. Headline reads “’The World Happiness Quiz of the Year”. A sub-heading reads “Curated content from the World Happiness Report”, plus a date label for December 2025.