The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) develops a yearly World Happiness Report, which is a survey of the state of global happiness, and ranks the world's countries by their happiness levels. Below, you can visualize these data and learn about the happiest countries.
The data used in this visualization come from the Gallup World Poll (GWP), which ranks countries based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll. This question is called the Cantril ladder, and asks respondents to think of a ladder, where the best possible life would be a 10, and the worst a 0. They then rate their own lives on that 0 to 10 scale. You can learn more about the Gallup World Poll here.
In addition to using the Gallup weights to calculate a happiness score, the contributions of six factors – Family, GDP per Capita, Health, Freedom, Generosity, and Trust – when making life evaluations are calculated.
Family (Social Support) 👨👩👧
The estimated extent to which Family contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.GDP per Capita 💰
The estimated extent to which GDP per Capita contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.Health 🏥
The estimated extent to which Health (Life Expectancy) contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.Freedom 🔓
The estimated extent to which Freedom contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.Generosity 💜
The estimated extent to which Generosity contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.Trust ✋🏼
The estimated extent to which Trust contributes to the calculation of the Happiness Score.Dystopia Residual 🌋
Each country is compared against a hypothetical nation called Dystopia. Dystopia represents the lowest national averages for each of the six key variables and is, along with residual error, used as a regression benchmark.In the interactive bubble chart below, you can see the estimated extent to which these six factors bring happiness to countries around the world. Use the slider to see data for different years, hover over a bubble to see details about the country, or select a filter to view the graph corresponding to that factor.
In the following slope graph, you can see how the top 10 happiest countries have ranked over the past three years.
The choropleth map below shows happiness levels for the year 2017. The happiest countries are colored darker, while the least happy are colored lighter. Countries not ranked are colored gray.
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