Belgium is one step closer to re-entering the top ten countries with the happiest population in the world. Since 2022, it has risen five places on the World Happiness Report's global leaderboard.
In the 13th edition of the World Happiness Report, published by research firm Gallup on International Happiness Day (Thursday 20 March), Belgium has risen to 14th place. Surveyed Belgians reported an average score of 6.91 (out of 10) when asked to evaluate their lives.
"It is important to note that this figure represents the score Belgians themselves give their life," Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre and an Editor of the World Happiness Report, told The Brussels Times. "It is not an official index."
While Belgium has risen in the ranks – from 16th place last year and 19th place in 2022 – the score people give their lives has remained constant and is even lower compared to when the ranking was first published.
"When the first measurements were in 2005, we were sixth in the world with an average life satisfaction of 7.26 [annual score]," said De Neve. "Since 2013, when Belgians reported an average score of 7.1, we have always remained just below 7." Its position in 2025 is the highest for three-year averages since the ranking was first published.
Finns remain the happiest
The ranking is based on respondents rating their lives on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being the worst possible life and ten the best. The rankings are from nationally representative samples over three years.
"That is our starting point from which we reverse engineer why people rate their life satisfaction in this way." Experts explain the variations using three key factors: wealth (GDP per capita and income), well-being (healthy life expectancy and access to healthcare, among others) and social support (loneliness, generosity, trust in others and the State).
The 2025 results once again highlighted that Northern Europeans are the happiest. Finland leads the world in happiness for the eighth year in a row, with Finns giving their lives a score of 7.74 out of 10. Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden round off the top four.
De Neve noted that the Nordic countries have for years scored themselves the highest in terms of life satisfaction. One of the key factors here is wealth. "Of course, there are many countries with high average incomes. But what sets these countries apart is the large redistribution of wealth. So the median GDP per capita is higher and the inequality much lower." This is also the case when it comes to welfare.
"Another positive trend is that the central Eastern European countries – Lithuania, Slovenia and Czechia – are all in the top 20," De Neve said. This is at the expense of the major industrial powers (Germany, the US, the UK), which for the first time, are not in the top 20. The US fell to its lowest-ever position (24th), while the UK reported its lowest average life evaluation since the 2017 report (23rd).
Finally, Afghanistan is again at the bottom of the ranking. Its score further decreased from 1.72 last year to 1.36. "It is truly distressing to realise that the average life satisfaction there is so low. This is a representative sample of a population, and they are giving their life satisfaction a score of 1.3 out of 10." For women, the score is even lower (1.16).
Weight of social fabric
The report has in recent years been putting more focus on the importance of social factors.
Costa Rica and Mexico, which both entered the top ten for the first time, rising from 12th to sixth place and 25th to tenth, respectively, exemplify the importance of these factors. "The reason why they have made such a big jump is because, during the Covid-19 pandemic, their life evaluation score tumbled from above 7 pre-pandemic to 6.3 in 2020 and 2021.
This can be explained by the fact that their happiness is highly dependent on the social fabric and social interactions. The pandemic undermined these crucial elements. "We calculate the scores over three years, and this is the first time without a Covid year putting a brake on their score since 2020."
To highlight this, researchers tried to substantiate the notion of social support more with empirical methods. People were asked whether they expected a lost wallet to be returned. Simultaneously, experiments were carried out to this end.
"In the Nordic countries, people have more faith that lost dropped wallets will be returned. This is a good indicator of social trust in each other and the State," De Neve said. However, all over the world, people underestimate the kindness of others.
"Even in Finland or Denmark, where ultimately more than 80% of the dropped wallets are returned, people estimated that only about 45% of the wallets would be returned. If you go to America, about 60% of the wallets are returned, but people think only 30% would be returned. Consistently, all over the world, people are twice as kind as expected."
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De Neve also specifically analysed the principle of eating meals together, and how this impacts happiness. "We asked people how many of their lunches and dinners in the past week were spent with other people. By doing so, we could for the first time – quasi-objectively – measure the degree to which people are truly social."
Again, the researchers found significant differences, with some people eating with others ten to 12 times of the 14 meals, and others only doing so three or four times. In Belgium, people spent an average of 8.3 out of 14 lunches and dinners in the past week with others. To the researchers' surprise, on the individual level, this indicator was equally strongly correlated with well-being or life satisfaction as employment status and relative income.
"This is incredible," De Neve said. "The downward trend in Western society actually indicates that, to some extent, the degree to which well-being and life satisfaction are under pressure is tied to our social fabric being undermined."
