Happiness Scores Stay Stable, Even Through the Pandemic

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Hover over a country to see its score and ranking.
Countries not colored do not have recorded data.
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Note: Antarctica is not pictured as it has no data.
Generally, Western European countries remain the happiest countries across the years.
North American countries are on the higher end of happiness scales, but have been steadily decreasing since 2015.
Countries in South Asia and Africa consistently remain on the lower end of the scale.
Even comparing the scores before and after the pandemic, the overall scores per region stay relatively stable.


Nordic Countries Remain the Happiest

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Regardless of the year, European countries dominate the top 15. Specifically, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland)
are consistently in the top 5 happiest every year. Comparing year by year, their happiness scores seem to increase steadily.
Israel is an outlier in that it is the only Middle East country that is always in the top 15 happiest.
African countries like Afghanistan, Burundi, and Togo are consistently at the bottom of the list.

The Americas/ANZ and Europe Dominate the Yearly Rankings

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Note: Commonwealth of Independent States was not recorded until 2017.
Despite the high percentage of European countries in the top 15 by year, North America and Australia/New Zealand are consistently the most happy countries on average.
However, as expected from the previous charts, West European countries are not far behind in average scores.
The Middle East and African regions are also consistently at the bottom of the rankings.
It's also worth noting that after a jump in 2019, Middle East and North Africa fell to the 3rd lowest spot and stayed there.

Social Support and Freedom are the Most Valued Factors

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Despite the variance in values, the patterns across different countries remain relatively consistent.
Most of the top countries highly value social support, life expectancy, and freedom to make choices.
Countries with lower Log GDP per capita have higher perceptions of social support and subsequently freedom to make life choices.
Again, as an outlier, Israel's happiness score mostly comes from its perceptions of social support and life expectancy, as freedom, generosity, and trust are markedly low.
Luxembourg is another standout country as its GDP is the highest, but perceptions of social support and generosity are among the lowest this year.