Gallup’s annual World Happiness Report is out, and for the seventh year in a row, Finland has topped the list as the happiest country in the world.
Finland’s ranking didn’t strike anyone as a surprise, as it’s held onto its top spot for a while—in fact, the entire top 10 of the list has remained the same since before the COVID-19 pandemic. That top 10 includes all five Nordic countries. Meanwhile, the United States was pushed back to the 23rd spot.
But intriguingly, Gallup’s report also delves into the factors that impact a population’s happiness—and this year, age was a big indicator.
The survey divided people into categories based on age, including groups for people under age 30 and people over age 60. And across much of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe, the youngest cohort was actually happier than the oldest one.
However, that’s in striking contrast to the United States and Canada, which were outliers in the trend as the youngest group was less happy than the oldest one. For the U.S., in particular, the happiness gap has risen since 2010, and actually puts the youngest group as the least happy of all age ranges, including the middle-age group.
The happiest country for people under 30 was Lithuania. Gallup’s rankings are based on a three-year average, which explains why Israel is the second-happiest country for the youngest group, despite the ongoing war in Gaza. The survey took place in Palestine before the war’s hostage-taking began, while the survey in Israel took place after. In the wake of these events, life satisfaction evaluations fell by 0.9 points on a 10-point scale, however, given the three-year range, only a third of that leveled into the larger average.
In the U.S., Gallup suggests that younger people’s unhappiness could be due to an epidemic of loneliness.
That comes as younger people are more prone to socialize through social media, which can bring its own set of mental health concerns. Factors that are somewhat unique to the U.S., like the student loan crisis and political climate, could also play larger roles in the state of unhappiness among the millennial and Gen Z cohorts. Those also potentially reflect the financial advantages given to older generations—like a more affordable housing market and reduced costs associated with higher education—that no longer apply to younger generations.
To download the full report, check out Gallup’s website here.
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