Being Kind–and Believing Others are Kind–Makes you Happier Than Wealth: Happiness Report Ranks 150 Countries

Believing that a wallet will be returned if dropped in public is one of the most important indicators of well being and happiness. In fact, it’s 7 times more impactful that doubling your income, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 just released this week.

Jeffrey Sachs conceived of the report that would measure wellness in 2012 and Gallup began interviewing people in 150 countries, and compiling those comparisons every year.

While analyzing the results for 2024, the researchers found that belief in the kindness of others is much more closely tied to peoples’ happiness than previously thought.

For instance, evidence across the world from the perceived—and actual—return of lost wallets shows that people are much too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities compared to the reality. The actual rates of wallet return are around twice as high as people expect.

Believing that others are willing to return your lost wallet is shown to be a strong predictor of population happiness—and the Nordic nations once again top the ranking of the world’s happiest countries. They also rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets.

“The wallet dropping experiments are so convincing because they confirm that people are much happier living where they think people care about each other, even if perceptions are everywhere too pessimistic,” said long-time lost-wallet researcher, John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia, and co-editor of the World Happiness Report 2025.

Finland tops the list of world’s happiest country for the eighth year in a row, with Finns reporting an average score of 7.736 (out of 10) when asked to evaluate their lives. In comparison, the U.S. ranked 24th, with Americans averaging (6.724 out of ten)—the lowest self-reported level since the poll began 13 years ago.

The Finnish Ambassador to the US, Leena-Kaisa Mikkola, attended the launch event for the report in Washington, DC, and proposed that a big reason for their consistent ranking was the Finns’ trust that both “people and politicians mean well.” The homogenous population made that easier for Finland, she said.

“Americans smile and laugh more than we do,” she continued. “But for us, happiness means being content.” She also quipped that “weekly sauna sessions for most of us” also contributed.

Costa Rica and Mexico both enter the top 10 for the first time (#6 and #10 respectively), while continued upward trends for countries such as Lithuania (16th), Slovenia (19th) and the Czech Republic (20th) underline the convergence of happiness levels between Eastern, Central, and Western Europe.

The United States, at 24th, fell to its lowest-ever position in the 13 years of polling. The United Kingdom ranked just higher at 23rd, with Brits reporting their lowest average life evaluation since their reports from 2017. All country rankings are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life.

Experts from economics, psychology, and sociology then seek to explain the variations across countries and over time using factors such as GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption. These factors help to explain the differences across nations—but the rankings themselves are based solely on the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives. Here are the top 25:

1. Finland
2. Denmark
3. Iceland
4. Sweden
5. Netherlands
6. Costa Rica
7. Norway
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Mexico
11. Australia
12. New Zealand
13. Switzerland
14. Belgium
15. Ireland
16. Lithuania
17. Austria
18. Canada
19. Slovenia
20. Czech Republic
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Germany
23. United Kingdom
24. USA
25. Belize

Further results around the theme of “caring and sharing”:

• Sharing meals with others is strongly linked with wellbeing across all global regions, but the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53% over the past two decades.
• Household size is closely linked to happiness. Four to five people living together enjoy the highest levels of happiness in Mexico and Europe, but many people in Europe are living on their own.
• In 2023, 19% of young adults across the world reported having no one they could count on for social support. This is a 39% increase compared to 2006.
• In countries where benevolent acts are more frequent, despair is less frequent.
• Declining happiness and social trust in the US and parts of Europe combine to explain the rise and direction of political polarization and anti-system votes.
• The cost-effectiveness of charities varies dramatically. Some charities are hundreds of times better at increasing happiness per dollar than others.

“Human happiness is driven by our relationships with others,” said Lara Aknin, a professor of social psychology and one of the report’s editors. “Investing in positive social connections and engaging in benevolent actions are both matched by greater happiness.”

Gallup CEO Jon Clifton concluded, “Happiness isn’t just about wealth or growth — it’s about trust, connection and knowing people have your back. This year’s report proves we underestimate how kind the world really is.”

“This year’s report pushes us to look beyond traditional determinants like health and wealth. It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of wellbeing than expected. In this era of social isolation and political polarization we need to find ways to bring people around the table again, said Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, which published the report with Gallup. “Doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing.”

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GNN caught up with journalist and author E.J. Dionne, who spoke at the Launch Event on the panel addressing political polarization. When asked what could be done about the problem, he said paying attention to the regions where people feel left behind would help—like rural or urban areas where young people have moved away after industrial jobs and small businesses closed. Loneliness could also be addressed, as well making government work better for the people. (On that last point, he recommended the book, Abundance, by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.)

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One suggestion he proposed is for churches on both sides of the political aisle to come together for socializing and charity work. It could build-up the social trust in institutions and people—which is what helps Finland stay atop the Happiness mountain.

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