World Happiness Report 2023

It has been over ten years since the first World Happiness Report was published. And it is exactly ten years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/281, proclaiming 20 March to be observed annually as International Day of Happiness.

This year my country, Sweden, is number six on the list, with three other Scandinavian countries ahead of us, which tells me that we are doing welln up North, despite the cold temperatures and the overall weather. Reading the results of the report, living in Sweden and working in Denmark should make me a happy person.

Since then, more and more people have come to believe that our success as countries should be judged by the happiness of our people. There is also a growing consensus about how happiness should be measured. This consensus means that national happiness can now become an operational objective for governments.

The country rankings in Figure below show life evaluations (answers to the Cantril ladder question) for each country, averaged over the years 2020-2022.

You can read the report here: World Happiness Report 2023