India ranked 116th in the World Happiness Report 2026 published Thursday, two notches up from the 118th position last year but behind Nepal and Pakistan.
The World Happiness Report is released each year around March 20, coinciding with the International Day of Happiness, and combines well-being data from over 140 countries with analysis by world-leading researchers from a range of academic disciplines.
This year’s theme revolved around ‘Happiness and Social Media.’
India ranked 116th overall, in terms of the overall ‘Happiness ranking’, up from 118th in 2024 and 126th in 2023.
However, in 2026, India ranked much better on several of the factors. For instance, it was 64th on perception of corruption (questions about prevalence of corruption); 78th on generosity (donation to charity); 61th on freedom (freedom to choose); 89th on GDP per capita (in terms of purchasing power parity); 95th on healthy life expectancy (based on data from WHO), and 123rd on social support (who one can count in need), the report showed.
In India’s neighbourhood, Afghanistan is yet again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world, this year again 147th, same as for 2025, even below the 143rd rank in 2023.
While Nepal with 99th rank (92 in 2025, 93 in 2024) and Pakistan with 104th rank (109 in 2025, 108 in 2024) remained much ahead of India. Sri Lanka ranked 134th (134 in 2025, 128 in 2024) and Bangladesh 127th (127 in 2025, 129 in 2024).
Among the conflict-ridden states, Myanmar ranked 129th (136 in 2025, 118 in 2024); the State of Palestine ranked 109th (108 in 2025, 103 in 2024); Israel at 8th position, continued to be among top 10 as it was in 2025 (8th) and 2024 (5th), while Ukraine continued at 111th rank, same as in 2025 but below 105th in 2024.
China was ranked in 65th position this year, down from 68th last year and 60th in 2024; Russia is at 79th (66 in 2025, 72 in 2024), while the USA was at 23rd position this year (24 in 2025, 23 in 2024).
The annual report is published by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
The annual report found that Finland is the happiest land in the world for the ninth year in a row, with other Nordic countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway ranking among the top 10 countries.
In New Delhi, Finland’s Ambassador to India, Kimmo Lahdevirta, attributed long-term development and societal trust for the continued top ranking of his country in the World Happiness Report.
The concept of “infrastructural happiness” is introduced, emphasising trust, mutual help, and contentment in society, he said.
“What is remarkable is that if Finland is the happiest country, I think Indians are the most optimistic people in the world. And so to combine, let’s say Indian optimism and Finnish happiness should be a winning combination in many ways,” Lahdevirta said.