Finland is world's happiest country for 7th year, Philippines at 53rd—World Happiness Report 2024

Finland is again the happiest country in the world, while the Philippines placed 53rd out of 143 countries in the 2024 World Happiness Report (WHR).

According to the WHR published by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Center, the Philippines placed 76th out of 137 countries last year, or 23 spots higher, making it the most improved nation year on year.

It’s the country’s highest WHR ranking since 2020, when it placed 52nd.

Finland topped the WHR for seven years straight.

For Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines is the second happiest country after Singapore, which placed 30th.

For this year, the WHR also had rankings by age group.

Lithuania is the happiest country for people under 30, while Denmark is the choice for people over 60.

The Philippines is the 70th happiest country for those under 30, while it’s the 43rd happiest country for those over 60.

“As people age, the prevailing negativity bias of younger ages is on average across the world increasingly offset as age leads people to focus more on positive news and memories, to accumulate enriching life experiences, to think better of others, and to rate their lives more highly,” the report read.

The WHR used a three-year data (2021 to 2023) from the Gallup World Poll, which was analyzed by the Oxford Wellbeing Research Center. In the poll, respondents evaluated their quality of life from a score of one to 10, with 10 being the highest.

The factors that led to the happiness score of each population include GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.