Life evaluations by young people aged under 25 in English-speaking countries have dropped dramatically over the past decade, especially in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, according to the 2026 World Happiness Report. These self-evaluations have decreased by almost one point on a 0-10 scale.

But the average evaluation has actually increased for this age group in the rest of the world.

At a time where many countries are seeking to implement greater legislative protections for under-16s online, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the new report has found heavy social media use is associated with a significant drop in wellbeing among 15 year-olds, particularly among girls and in Western Europe.

The type of social media platform, how it is used and demographic factors such as gender and socio-economic status all played a part in how this age group were affected.

The researchers say young people who use social media for less than one hour per day report the highest levels of wellbeing – higher than those who don’t use social media at all. One estimate suggests adolescents spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on social media.

The platforms that are driven by algorithms that curate content tend to demonstrate a negative association with wellbeing, compared to those that facilitate social connections, which show a clear positive association with happiness.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, professor of economics at the University of Oxford and an editor of the World Happiness Report, said: “Beyond the complexity, it is clear that we should look as much as possible to put the ‘social’ back into social media.”

World happiness rankings

The report and its rankings of world happiness are based on Gallup World Poll data and other sources analysed by an international team of leading experts in wellbeing science. Rankings for 140 countries are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life. Experts account for variations across countries over time using factors such as GDP per capita and healthy life expectancy.

The 14th annual edition of the report has been published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board. 

Finland continues to reign as the world’s happiest country for a ninth year in a row, with citizens reporting an average score of 7.8 out of 10 when asked to evaluate their lives.

Costa Rica has climbed to its highest position yet, at the fourth happiest country in the world, and Switzerland has re-entered the top 10 at number 10 after a one year in a lower position.

Here are the top 10

• Finland
• Iceland
• Denmark
• Costa Rica
• Sweden
• Norway
• Netherlands
• Israel
• Luxembourg
• Switzerland
  

For the second year in a row, however, none of the English-speaking countries appear in the top 10 happiest countries and only half remain in the top 20.

• New Zealand – 11th
• Ireland – 13th
• Australia – 15th
• United States – 23rd
• Canada – 25th
• UK – 29th

Countries in or near zones of major conflict remain at the bottom of the rankings.

Read the report and more about the world’s happiest countries here.