25/03/2026
Thought for the dayā¦itās a bit long but well worth the readā¦š„°
Headline news from the WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT
If youāre British, look away nowā¦
The World Happiness Report for 2025 has just been published, allowing us to have a look at trends in wellbeing from around the world.
So what are the headline results?
Finland leads the charge as the worldās happiest country, for the 9th year in a row.
Iceland, Denmark and Sweden are in the top 5 (again!) with Costa Rica a new entry at #4.
Western Europe as a whole is less happy than in 2024. The same goes for North America, Australia and New Zealand.
By contrast, Eastern/Central Europe, East Asia and Latin America seem to be getting happier.
The UK has slipped from 21st to 29th place, ahead of Serbia and Uruguay, but behind Lithuania and Belize.
The publisher has picked out a theme for this yearās report - social media and connection. Social media has never featured so heavily in the WHR, and the authors are careful to stress that wellbeing is complex and influenced by many factors. This year however, the authors make the case that there is enough evidence to suggest that social media is actively contributing to the reductions of happiness across Western Europe, particularly amongst teenagers.
For some more snapshot findings:
They reported that the more a teenager uses social media, the lower their levels of life satisfaction, and teens who use social media for seven or more hours a day have significantly lower wellbeing than those who use it for less than one hour.
This finding was the greatest among teenage girls in Western Europe.
In experimental research, reducing social media seems to consistently reduce depression and anxiety symptoms.
Most disturbingly, this was found by Facebook in their own research.
So far, not so positive for what is supposed to be the World Happiness Report. However, digging even deeper shows that these findings depend on how social media is used, and also offers us an optimistic way forward.
Not all social media is created equal, and the same goes for impacts on our mental health. Negative impacts on mental health seem to come from stuff that is mostly built around algorithms and influencers, probably because it causes people to feel jealous and compare themselves to others.
However social media can give us a real wellbeing boost. This happens when social media is used to increase social connection with people we care about, such as facetiming loved ones or staying in contact with friends. Essentially, when social media does what it says on the tin, it actually makes us feel better. When social media is truly social, it really can be used to enhance our quality of life.
Perhaps most encouragingly, whilst reducing social media use can improve wellbeing, researchers found something with a way bigger impact. People, specifically feeling a sense of belonging with the people in your life, causes a much bigger increase in wellbeing than any changes to our digital habits. Dopamine detoxes are good, but spending quality time with people you care about (and who care about you) is even better.
So, in a year of uncertainty and unpredictability, it seems the big happiness tip is one we all already knew. Focus on the people who matter the most to you, and build belonging together. Make others feel as though they belong, show them how much they matter, and youāll probably find that you feel the same way too. Not only is it an act of love to your dearest dozen, itās also a proactive step to protect those around you from the relentless pace of change.
Bottom line: you might not be able to actively choose happiness, but you can create the conditions by making the effort to form strong human connections.
Ollie x
