2023 World Happiness Report: Finland tops ranking, Cyprus in 46, Turkiye in 106 and Nigeria in 95

Finland remains in the top position for the sixth year in a row in the World Happiness Report 2023, published on Monday with Cyprus ranked 46th.

Finland is followed by Denmark, Iceland and Israel. War-torn Afghanistan and Lebanon remain the two unhappiest countries in the survey, with average life evaluations more than five points lower (on a scale running from 0 to 10) than in the ten happiest countries with Sierra Leone completing the bottom three of the list of 137 countries.

Nigeria is ranked 95th from 118th in 2022, indicating the country’s improving perception on key indicators. Turkiye is ranked 106 and Zimbabwe 143, fourth from bottom.

Cyprus (south) is ranked 46th recording a drop from 41st in 2022 and 39th in 2021, the report shows.

Lithuania, the only new country in the top twenty, up more than 30 places since 2017.

The top ten countries are ordered:

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Israel
5. Netherlands
6. Sweden
7. Norway
8. Switzerland
9. Luxembourg
10. New Zealand

“The ultimate goal of politics and ethics should be human well-being,” said economist and director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs. “The happiness movement shows that well-being is not a ‘soft’ and ‘vague’ idea but rather focuses on areas of life of critical importance: material conditions, mental and physical wealth, personal virtues, and good citizenship. We need to turn this wisdom into practical results to achieve more peace, prosperity, trust, civility – and yes, happiness – in our societies.”

The survey is based on individuals’ own assessments of their lives, and reflects six variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.

This year the survey focused on how Covid-19 affected the distribution of well-being and found life evaluations to be ‘remarkably resilient’, with global averages in the coronavirus years just as high as those in the pre-pandemic period.

The report also looked at the ‘happiness gap’, the difference in happiness between the more and less happy halves of the population.

Cyprus ranked 44th in this listing, while Afghanistan was top. The Netherlands was in second place, followed by Finland, Iceland and Belgium.

“This year’s report features many interesting insights,” said professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University, Lara Aknin, “but one that I find particularly interesting and heartening has to do with pro-sociality. For a second year, we see that various forms of everyday kindness, such as helping a stranger, donating to charity, and volunteering, are above pre-pandemic levels. Acts of kindness have been shown to both lead to and stem from greater happiness.”

The report, a publication of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, draws on global survey data from people in more than 150 countries.