Happiest countries in the world revealed – where does the UK rank?

The 2026 ranking for the happiest countries in the world has been revealed as well as Britain’s position on the list.

It won’t come as a surprise to absolutely anybody that Britain is not the happiest country in the world and, let’s be honest, that’s how we like it.

The UK wouldn’t be the iconic, miserable, wet, but also stoic nation that we are if we were all perpetually happy like the Canadians or Americans.

With that said, we’ve still got to rank somewhere, and, actually, it’s not as bad as you might think at first, especially when the UK often comes near the top of the ugly duckling sibling of the ranking world – most miserable nations.

Of course the top 10 features all the Nordic countries, with Finland number one, Iceland number two, and Denmark number three.

Meanwhile, Sweden comes in fifth and Norway sixth.

The top ten is rounded out by Costa Rica in fourth, Israel in eighth, Luxembourg ninth and Switzerland in tenth.

The ranking is compiled by the World Happiness Report who judge the scores off equality, social support, GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, perceptions of corruption, positive emotions and negative emotions.

The full list is as follows:

1. Finland
2. Iceland
3. Denmark
4. Costa Rica
5. Sweden
6. Norway
7. Netherlands
8. Israel
9. Luxembourg
10. Switzerland
11. New Zealand
12. Mexico
13. Ireland
14. Belgium
15. Australia
16. Kosovo
17. Germany
18. Slovenia
19. Austria
20. Czechia
21. United Arab Emirates
22. Saudi Arabia
23. United States
24. Poland
25. Canada
26. Taiwan
27. Belize
28. Lithuania
29. United Kingdom