Israel has dropped three places in the World Happiness Report’s global rankings, falling from 5th to 8th place in the latest edition released to coincide with the United Nations International Day of Happiness on March 20.
The 13th edition of the annual report shows Finland maintaining its dominance at the top spot for yet another year, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden rounding out the Nordic countries’ bizarrely consistent high placement. The Netherlands and Costa Rica moved up to 5th and 6th place, respectively, displacing Israel.
Despite the slip in rankings, Israel remains firmly within the top 10 happiest nations globally, which is a fairly notable achievement given the ongoing conflicts and tensions the country has faced since October 7, 2023.
At the end of every day, Edith Zakai-Or still thinks about the things that gave her joy during the day.
It’s an exercise in happiness, where you write down in a notebook three positive things that happened that day, to boost your sense of contentment.
Israel’s strength: strong social connections
The report measures a number of factors to come up with its global ranking: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption. The former two factors make up a majority of Israel’s overall happiness.
The report highlights Israel as the country with the highest global ranking in the quality of social connections (followed closely by Mexico and Argentina). This suggests that young adults in the country generally feel confident about the availability of help when needed, which is a crucial factor for overall well being.
The report’s top 10 happiness rankings for 2025:
1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
Yuval Kutz says something toward the end of our interview that resonates so much that I am still thinking about it several hours later.
Kutz is president of the Happiness Studies Academy, an online program founded in Israel using scientific research to educate leaders about how to find and share happiness.
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