In the subjective happiness score, where people evaluate their overall quality of life, South Korea ranked 58th out of 147 countries, dropping 6 places from last year.
On the 19th (local time), the Wellbeing Research Center of the University of Oxford, Gallup, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) released the national happiness rankings through the '2025 World Happiness Report' (WHR).
Finland achieved the top score of 7.736 points, marking its eighth consecutive year as the happiest country. Denmark ranked second (7.521 points), Iceland third (7.515 points), and Sweden fourth (7.345 points), indicating that Nordic countries scored high.
In the top ranks, European countries are prominently positioned, including the Netherlands (5th, 7.306 points), Norway (7th, 7.262 points), Luxembourg (9th, 7.122 points), Switzerland (13th, 6.935 points), Belgium (14th, 6.910 points), Ireland (15th, 6.889 points), Lithuania (16th, 6.829 points), and Austria (17th, 6.810 points).
Despite being at war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israel ranked 8th (7.234 points). Costa Rica (6th, 7.234 points) and Mexico (10th, 6.979 points) made their first appearance in the top 10. The United States fell to 24th (6.728 points), its lowest ranking since the survey began in 2012.
South Korea dropped to 58th (6.038 points), lower than last year’s ranking of 52nd. In the 2023 report, South Korea was ranked 57th, 59th in 2022, and 62nd in 2021.
Afghanistan received the lowest score of 1.364 points out of 147 countries. Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia for over three years, ranked 111th (4.680 points), while Russia was 66th (5.945 points).
The researchers focused particularly on the impact of care and sharing on people's happiness this year. The study found that trust in the kindness of others is more closely linked to happiness than commonly believed. Additionally, those who frequently eat meals with others tend to be happier.
It was noted that the increase of people eating alone is one reason for the decline in happiness indexes in the United States, and that in East Asian countries, especially South Korea and Japan, the rise in single-person households and an aging population have led to more people eating alone.