United States Of Unhappiness? America Falls To New Low In World Rankings

The 2024 year may be one for Americans to forget with a divided nation thanks to a contentious presidential election cycle.

That political divide may have weighed into the recent world country rankings, where the U.S. hit a new low.

What Happened: While many investors may have been happy in 2024 thanks to the strong returns for many stocks and indexes with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY up over 24%, Americans may have been unhappy for many other reasons.

The World Happiness Report, which ranks happiness levels of residents in 147 countries, was recently released and saw the U.S. fall to its lowest ranking, as reported by CBS News.

The U.S. ranked 24^th in the annual report, which has been published every year since 2012. The 24^th place ranking has changed from 23^rd last year. This marks two years in a row that the U.S. has ranked below the top 20 happiest countries, the only two times in the 12-year history of the survey and rankings.

The U.S. ranked 15^th two years ago and peaked at 11^th in 2012.

One factor highlighted in the report was the increasing number of people who eat alone.

“In 2023, roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day — an increase of 53% since 2003,” the report said. “Dining alone has become more prevalent for every age group, but especially for young people.”

Published using data from the Gallup World Poll, the survey asks country residents to evaluate their lives and rank happiness. The survey shows that kindness to others, caring about others and sharing with others can contribute to overall happiness.

"Happiness isn't just about wealth or growth — it's about trust, connection and knowing people have your back," Gallup CEO Jon Clifton said.

Another factor contributing to the U.S.’s drop in the rankings, as well as the rankings of some European countries, was “the rise in political polarization and votes against ‘the system,'” the report said.

The country-wide evolution of happiness and trust is highly associated with the rise in the likelihood of voting for anti-system parties in Western Europe and the United States,” the authors wrote.

Why It's Important: While the U.S. didn't perform well in the rankings, Mexico and Costa Rica joined the top 10 for the first time in the survey's history.

The survey said that Mexico and Costa Rica may have enjoyed a rise in the rankings thanks to family household size.

The report found that larger households and strong family relationships can increase happiness.

Finland topped the list, ranking first in happiness for eight straight years.

Here are the top 20 happiest countries:

Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Sweden
Netherlands
Costa Rica
Norway
Israel
Luxembourg
Mexico
Australia
New Zealand
Switzerland
Belgium
Ireland
Lithuania
Austria
Canada
Slovenia
Czech Republic

Other notable countries in the rankings include China (68^th), Russian Federation (66^th) and Ukraine (111^th). Afghanistan ranked last at 147^th of the countries included in the survey.

The 2024 survey was conducted throughout the year, which means Americans were asked about happiness while Joe Biden was still president and likely after Donald Trump had won the 2024 election.

Given the strong political divide, it's highly likely that politics played into happiness rankings and this means the U.S. could fall in rankings once again.

While Trump will judge his success in office based on stock market returns, approval ratings and other metrics, a rise in the world rankings for the country in the next survey would also likely be highlighted by the president as a victory during his current White House term.

Finland tops the list, and the iShares MSCI Finland ETF EFNL, which tracks the country’s leading stocks, has risen 17.6% year-to-date in 2025. The ETF is up 48.6% over the last five years.

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