The World Happiness Report 2025, released on March 20, ranks Finland as the happiest country for the eighth consecutive year.
Other Nordic countries, including Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, also remain at the top in the same order.
Nigeria secured 105 ranking out of 147 nations in the report unveiled yesterday as the world observed the International Day of Happiness.
The report showed that Nigeria dropped three spots from its 2024 ranking of 102, but has moved higher to become the 10th happiest country in Africa.
This is a far cry from Nigeria’s position in 2003 when a World Values Survey indicated that Nigeria had the happiest people in the world.
In the recently released 2025 World Happiness Report, Libya emerged as the highest-ranked nation in Africa, securing 79 on the standing, surpassing its neighbours in life satisfaction and societal well-being amidst a landscape of ongoing challenges.
The United States, which fell out of the top 20 for the first time last year, now ranks No. 24, as it reached its highest ranking of number 11 back in 2012. The decline in happiness is not exclusive to the US, as the United Kingdom now stands at 23, recording its lowest average life satisfaction since 2017.
The report is released by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network in collaboration with Gallup and the Oxford Center for Well-Being Research.
It examines how happiness varies across populations, showing differences within and between nations. The report looks at six key variables to help explain life evaluations: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
This year’s report edition focused “on the impact of caring and sharing on people’s happiness”, and how happiness varies across populations, showing significant differences within and between nations.
