Canada has been ranked the happiest nation among the many G7 within the 2025 World Happiness Report.
Canada has carried out properly in these rankings year-over-year, persistently rating among the many happiest international locations in each the G7 and G20.
2025 World Happiness Rating
Canada ranked 18th within the world happiness rating for 2025. The nation noticed a slight decline in its rating from 2024, when it positioned fifteenth globally.
Canada shouldn’t be alone among the many G7 in seeing a decline in its happiness rating. All G7 international locations have seen declines of their happiness rating within the final 5 years, together with the US of America (ranked twenty fourth this 12 months), and the UK (ranked twenty third this 12 months). Notably, Germany, which in 2021 was ranked increased than Canada, now ranks twenty second by way of world happiness.
Between 2021 and 2024 Canada achieved the next rankings:
| 12 months | International happiness rating |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 11 |
| 2021 | 14 |
| 2022 | 15 |
| 2023 | 13 |
| 2024 | 15 |
Finland continued to carry out strongly on the World Happiness Rating, holding first place for the eighth 12 months in a row.
For the reason that inception of the World Happiness Rating in 2013, a constant pattern has been the dominance of Scandinavian international locations throughout the prime 10 happiest international locations. In 2025, six of the ten happiest international locations on this planet have been from this a part of the world.
The next desk breaks down the ten international locations ranked the happiest in 2025, together with their life analysis rating, which is defined in additional element under:
| Rank | Nation | Life Analysis Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finland | 7.736 |
| 2 | Denmark | 7.521 |
| 3 | Iceland | 7.515 |
| 4 | Sweden | 7.345 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 7.306 |
| 6 | Costa Rica | 7.274 |
| 7 | Norway | 7.262 |
| 8 | Israel | 7.234 |
| 9 | Luxembourg | 7.122 |
| 10 | Mexico | 6.979 |
Methodology
The World Happiness Rankings are based mostly on a complete measurement of subjective well-being, which incorporates three major indicators:
- Life evaluations;
- Optimistic feelings; and
- Damaging feelings.
Life Evaluations
The methodology of the World Happiness Rating is designed to empower respondents to judge their very own well-being, emphasizing a bottom-up method the place people present private assessments of their lives.
Whereas numerous life elements are thought of to elucidate variations in life evaluations, some variables like unemployment or inequality should not included, as a consequence of a scarcity of comparable information throughout all international locations.
The first measure used for the rankings is life evaluations, thought of probably the most dependable indicator of high quality of life. For annually’s rankings, scores of life evaluations are averaged during the last three years to make sure consistency.
Information is gathered from the Gallup World Ballot, the place respondents are requested to judge their present life utilizing a scale referred to as the Cantril Ladder*. Respondents fee their lives on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the absolute best life and 0 being the worst potential life.
Except for the Cantril Ladder, life evaluations are additionally damaged down into different measures that are usually correlated to happiness, equivalent to self-reports on perceptions of
- Social help;
- Freedom;
- Generosity; and
- Corruption.
*The Cantril Ladder permits respondents to self-anchor their well-being based mostly on their distinctive views. This subjective method aligns with efforts from organizations just like the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement (OECD) to measure well-being and develop complete metrics for evaluating nationwide progress.
Usually, round 1,000 responses are collected yearly per nation, and population-representative nationwide averages are calculated for annually. To reinforce precision, the happiness rankings are based mostly on a three-year common of those life evaluations.
Optimistic and detrimental feelings
The measurement of feelings is split into two classes, every with three sub-categories:
- Optimistic Feelings: The common of responses to questions on experiencing laughter, enjoyment, and curiosity; and
- Damaging Feelings: The common of responses to questions on experiencing fear, unhappiness, and anger.
Though these self-reports on emotion contribute to the happiness rating, life evaluations are most popular for worldwide comparisons as a consequence of their stability and skill to seize a broader view of life circumstances.
How pleased are newcomers in Canada?
Although there may be not a lot analysis particularly learning newcomer happiness in Canada, the research that do exist present constructive tendencies. In a 2024 examine carried out by analysis agency Pollara Strategic Insights, 79% of the 1,507 newcomer respondents reported feeling “general happiness in Canada”.
Regardless of this analysis deficit, there’s a wealthy physique of literature learning newcomer’s self-reports of emotions typically related to happiness and well-being.
For instance, research carried out by Statistics Canada reveal that newcomers to the nation typically report a powerful sense of belonging to their native communities and to Canada as a complete. This sense of belonging is usually underscored by newcomer’s notion of their high quality of life and stage of social integration inside Canada.
Newcomers’ self-reports on this regard are sometimes stronger than the natural-born Canadian inhabitants and have a tendency to differ by area.
Sense of belonging to native communities
A 2022 examine into immigrants’ sense of belonging to Canada discovered that
- Current immigrants (those that arrived prior to now 5 years) reported a powerful sense of belonging to their area people at a fee of fifty%.
- Lengthy-term immigrants (those that arrived greater than 5 years in the past) reported a powerful sense of belonging at a fee of 48%.
Compared, Canadian-born people reported a powerful sense of belonging at a fee of 46%.
Sense of belonging to Canada
A 2023 examine carried out by Statistics Canada discovered that the energy of immigrants’ sense of belonging to Canada varies throughout the nation, with notable regional variations:
Immigrants residing in Atlantic Canada and Ontario report the strongest sense of belonging to Canada.
Immigrants in British Columbia and Alberta report a weaker sense of belonging in comparison with these in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
In Alberta, the decrease sense of belonging is basically attributed to elements equivalent to
- Sociodemographic traits (e.g., years since touchdown, inhabitants group, age, and schooling);
- Perceptions of discrimination; and
- Structural situations, together with unemployment charges, median revenue, and the dimensions of the immigrant inhabitants.
If these elements have been equalized, immigrants in Alberta would probably report a way of belonging just like these in Ontario.
In British Columbia, the distinction in sense of belonging shouldn’t be defined by the identical elements affecting Alberta. Even after accounting for sociodemographic traits, discrimination, and structural situations, immigrants in Ontario usually tend to report a really robust sense of belonging to Canada than these in British Columbia.
Regardless of these regional variations, immigrants in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces persistently report particularly favorable views about their sense of belonging to Canada. Moreover, immigrants in Ontario are extra probably than native-born Canadians to report a really robust sense of belonging to Canada.

