Highlights
- India climbed to rank 118 in the World Happiness Report 2025, improving from 123 last year
- Finland holds the crown for the world’s happiest country, followed closely by Denmark and Iceland—could the cold make people happier?
- Despite the progress, India trails behind Palestine, Ukraine, and even Venezuela — proving that turmoil might just be the secret to happiness
- With Trump’s tariff antics in full swing, Canada and Mexico’s current happiness ranks might tumble rapidly
- With Somalia’s score just a whisker below India’s, policymakers may wonder if they’re better off funding piracy than pushing social welfare
India became a much happier place last year. There’s no two ways about it—the World Happiness Report 2025, published today (March 20) ranks India at 118 out of 147 countries, a big change from the previous year’s rank of 123 out of 143 nations. Take a bow, Modi government; take that, the opposition!
To be sure, India was ranked 117 out of 158 countries in the 2015 World Happiness Report, but let’s not dwell on that---at least we have clawed back lost happiness in the intervening years.
The happiest country in the world is Finland, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands, in that order. Before you leap to the conclusion that cold is good for happiness, Costa Rica, a tropical country, comes in at sixth, giving us all hope.
Israel is at number 8, which suggests that bashing up weaker neighbours could be a recipe for happiness. On the other hand, the report places Palestine at no 108, ten ranks above India. They may be 100 ranks below Israel in the happiness league, but India manages to be unhappy even without death and destruction raining down on us.
Mexico is at number 10, Canada at no.18 and the US at number 24. Trump may be looking enviously at happy Canadians and Mexicans, which is why he decided to pull them down to earth by slapping tariffs on them. But next year’s World Happiness Report is likely to see a nosedive in Canada and Mexico’s happiness rankings.
Incidentally, Belize, a Central American nation, ranks no 25, just below the US. Belize is supposed to have one of the highest murder rates in the world, so it’s a bit of a head-scratcher why they’re so happy. Perhaps the folks there enjoy the excitement, it takes all sorts to make a world. Or maybe the Gallup poll guys interviewed the murderers there.
By the way, talking of war-torn countries, Ukraine ranks no 111, well above India, in spite of the mayhem going on there. We all know that some people are happiest when fighting, and the World Happiness Index proves it conclusively. Russia is at no 66, which proves that people who are winning a war are happier than those losing it, a fact also brought out by the Israel and Palestine happiness ranking.
Is civil war a barrier to happiness? Not if you consider Libya, which is at no 79. On the other hand, the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the least happy countries, ranked 141. It all goes to show that what matters is attitude.
But enough of faraway countries—let’s talk about India. Our score on the happiness index is 4.389, a tad above Chad at 4.384, Burkina Faso at 4.383, Benin at 4.357 and, hold your breath, Somalia at 4.347. That should make our policy makers think whether all this Make in India, social welfare policies, PLIs etc are worth it or whether we should chuck it all up and go in for mass piracy, since people seem to be more or less at the same level of happiness with that option.
For those wondering where Burkina Faso is, it’s a nation in West Africa and Wikipedia tells me that ‘An ongoing war and civil conflict between the Government of Burkina Faso and Islamist rebels began in August 2015 and has led to the displacement of over 2 million people and the deaths of at least 10,000 civilians and combatants.’ It just goes to show that you can be happy in the worst of times.
Also consider Venezuela, widely seen as a basket case, which has led to thousands fleeing the country. Guess what, it’s ranked 82, far above India. It’s ranked no 35 on ‘’positive emotions’’, while India ranks no 89 on this metric. It may be, of course, that Venezuelans are positive because they hope to leave the country soon.
Bhutan, which pioneered the concept of ‘’Gross National Happiness’’ doesn’t find a place in the 2025 rankings. But it was at no 79 in the 2024 report.
With war zones, economic disasters, and even pirate hubs ranking above India, what the World Happiness report seems to prove is that all we need are rose-tinted glasses.
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