After previously being ranked at number 58 in the Word Happiness Report, this year’s results have revealed Greece has dropped its ranking.
The 2024 report showed Greece is now sitting at number 64 in the list.
Despite Greece’s rank dropping by six places, Australia has climbed the ranks claiming number 10 in the World Happiness Report.
These results, which have been collected via data from Gallup World Poll and analysed by leading scientists, were released on Wednesday, March 20, in conjunction with the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness.
“Our role in research on world happiness is a natural fit with our longstanding mission: providing leaders with the right information about what people say makes life worthwhile,” CEO of Gallup, Jon Clifton, said.
140 nations have been included in this year’s list ranking the world’s happiest countries. Finland was named the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row.
The World Happiness report involves respondents being asked to evaluate their life satisfaction over the past three years on a scale of one to 10. 2024 was also the first time the report gave separate rankings by age group.
One of the Emeritus Professors from the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, and a founding Editor of the World Happiness Report, described this year’s results as “striking.”
“There is a great variety among countries in the relative happiness of the younger, older, and in-between populations,” Professor John F. Helliwell said.
“Hence the global happiness rankings are quite different for the young and the old, to an extent that has changed a lot over the last dozen years.”
Despite Australia climbing its ranks, ABC News revealed that the new data has shown a major age-gap in well-being. The happiness ranking for people in Australia aged under 30 was 19, however, for people aged over 60, it jumps to 9.
“For the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, happiness has decreased in all age groups, but especially for the young, so much so that the young are now, in 2021-2023, the least happy age group,” the report stated.
The 10 top countries in the World Happiness Report
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Israel
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Luxemburg
- Switzerland
- Australia
Source: ABC News and World Happiness Report.
