The World's Happiest Countries (The List)

happy family jumping together
(Image credit: szefei | Shutterstock.com)

How happy is your country? A new report used interviews with more than 146,000 people around the world to rank 145 countries by the well being of their residents.

Participants answered questions about five aspects of their well-being: their sense of purpose, social relationships, financial situations, community involvement and physical health. Based on their responses, participants were considered "thriving," "struggling" or "suffering" in each of those five aspects.

Here's the full list of rankings, in order of the percentage of people who were thriving in three or more aspects of well-being:

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RankCountry2014 Thriving in 3+ Elements
1Panama53.0%
2Costa Rica47.6%
3Puerto Rico45.8%
4Switzerland39.4%
5Belize38.9%
6Chile38.7%
7Denmark37.0%
8Guatemala36.3%
9Austria35.6%
10Mexico35.6%
11Uruguay35.5%
12Argentina33.6%
13Colombia33.4%
14Kyrgyzstan33.4%
15Brazil33.2%
16Norway32.0%
17Netherlands31.9%
18El Salvador31.9%
19Turkmenistan31.7%
20Myanmar31.7%
21United Arab Emirates30.8%
22Israel30.7%
23United States30.5%
24Canada30.2%
25Luxembourg30.2%
26Sweden29.1%
27Saudi Arabia28.5%
28Germany28.0%
29New Zealand27.9%
30Venezuela27.7%
31Bahrain27.6%
32Mauritania27.3%
33Nicaragua27.3%
34Dominican Republic26.9%
35Honduras26.4%
36Ireland26.3%
37Finland26.2%
38Bolivia25.9%
39Ecuador25.9%
40Australia25.3%
41Malaysia24.6%
42Malta24.4%
43Philippines24.1%
44United Kingdom23.5%
45Kuwait23.5%
46Sierra Leone23.4%
47Russia23.0%
48France22.8%
49Northern Cyprus22.6%
50Thailand22.4%
51Namibia21.7%
52Slovakia21.4%
53Romania20.8%
54Macedonia20.6%
55Spain20.6%
56Tanzania20.2%
57Poland20.1%
58Turkey19.9%
59Taiwan19.8%
60Sri Lanka19.5%
61Kazakhstan19.1%
62Sudan19.0%
63Mauritius18.9%
64Algeria18.5%
65Albania18.5%
66Portugal18.3%
67Belgium18.2%
68Mongolia17.7%
69Bosnia Herzegovina17.5%
70India17.1%
71Kenya16.8%
72Czech Republic16.8%
73Indonesia16.7%
74Bulgaria16.6%
75Hungary16.5%
76Jamaica16.4%
77Nepal16.4%
78Paraguay16.3%
79Estonia16.2%
80Pakistan16.0%
81Belarus15.7%
82Cyprus15.7%
83Tajikistan15.6%
84Serbia15.3%
85Italy15.3%
86Slovenia14.7%
87Congo Brazzaville14.6%
88Latvia14.3%
89Lebanon14.1%
90Yemen14.0%
91Peru13.8%
92Japan13.5%
93Vietnam13.2%
94Montenegro13.1%
95Iran13.0%
96Kosovo13.0%
97Singapore12.7%
98Rwanda12.4%
99Cambodia12.4%
100Bangladesh12.3%
101Jordan12.2%
102Iraq12.1%
103Lithuania11.7%
104Croatia11.5%
105Moldova11.4%
106South Sudan11.3%
107Ethiopia11.2%
108Liberia10.4%
109South Africa10.4%
110Mali10.4%
111Greece10.3%
112Palestine9.9%
113Niger9.8%
114Botswana9.8%
115Morocco9.5%
116Guinea9.4%
117South Korea9.4%
118Burkina Faso9.0%
119Azerbaijan9.0%
120Hong Kong8.6%
121Gabon8.3%
122Angola8.3%
123Malawi8.2%
124Armenia8.1%
125Zambia7.9%
126Georgia7.9%
127China7.9%
128Ukraine7.7%
129Egypt7.7%
130Chad7.7%
131Burundi7.6%
132Senegal6.8%
133Uganda6.6%
134Madagascar6.5%
135Zimbabwe6.1%
136Ghana5.6%
137Haiti5.3%
138Benin4.8%
139Ivory Coast4.5%
140Congo Kinshasa4.1%
141Tunisia4.0%
142Togo3.9%
143Cameroon3.1%
144Bhutan3.0%
145Afghanistan0.0%
Rachael Rettner
Contributor

Rachael is a Live Science contributor, and was a former channel editor and senior writer for Live Science between 2010 and 2022. She has a master's degree in journalism from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She also holds a B.S. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has appeared in Scienceline, The Washington Post and Scientific American.