In the World Happiness Report 2026, Canada ranked 25th in the global happiness index with an average life satisfaction score of 6.741 out of 10. The ranking is based on average responses from 2023–2025 to the question of how people rate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10.
For Canada, this is not just a temporary dip but a continuation of a long downward trend. In the report’s official text, the authors explicitly note that among industrialized countries that dropped out of the top 10 between 2013 and 2026, Canada is included—falling from 6th to 25th place. This puts Canada’s result into a broader context: it is not about a single bad year, but about a long-term decline in subjective well-being.
The Top Ten in the Ranking
The top ten in the report looks like this:
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Finland
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Iceland
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Denmark
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Costa Rica
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Sweden
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Norway
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Netherlands
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Israel
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Luxembourg
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Switzerland
Finland has held the top spot since 2018, while Costa Rica has climbed four spots this time—the highest ranking ever for a Latin American country in the report’s history.
How Canada stacks up against other English-speaking countries
When looking at the countries Canada is typically compared to, the picture is bleak. In 2026:
- New Zealand — 11th
- Australia — 15th
- United States — 23rd
- Canada — 25th
- United Kingdom — 29th
In other words, English-speaking developed countries are generally falling behind, but Canada no longer stands out among them as a positive exception.
Social Media and Youth Well-being
It is particularly noteworthy that the main theme of the 2026 report is the link between happiness and social media. In the executive summary, the authors note that in the ranking of well-being changes among people under 25, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand ranked between 122nd and 133rd out of 136. The report also notes that it is in these countries where youth well-being has declined most noticeably over the past decade.
At the same time, the authors do not claim that Canada’s decline can be explained solely by social media. Reuters, which covered the report’s release, specifically emphasizes: the researchers did not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, but rather point to a complex set of factors. The report’s editors themselves note that excessive use of social media, especially among teenagers, may be a significant part of the problem, but not its sole explanation. Reuters also highlights the role of broader social conditions, particularly a sense of reduced social support among young people in English-speaking countries.
Ukraine in the ranking
For the Ukrainian audience, this report offers another point of reference: Ukraine ranked 111th with an average life score of 4.658. Below it in the ranking were, in particular, Morocco, Guinea, Mali, and Ghana, while Afghanistan once again remained at the bottom of the list.