Finland ranks as the world’s happiest country for the ninth straight year: They do 'a lot of things right'

Finland ranked as the world’s happiest country for the ninth straight year in the 2026 World Happiness Report.

The rankings are based on the Gallup World Poll, which surveys at least 1,000 people in each of 147 countries, asking them to rate their lives on a scale from 0 (the worst possible) to 10 (the best possible). The U.S. came in 23rd place with a score of 6.81.

At its core, the survey asks whether people are satisfied with how their lives are going, says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, which publishes the World Happiness Report.

Here are the top 10 happiest countries:

To explain differences in scores, researchers identified six key factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.