Finland Tops Global Happiness Rankings Again as Social Media Hurts Youth Well-Being

A new global happiness study reveals Finland remains the world's happiest nation for the ninth consecutive year, while excessive social media use is causing significant mental health declines among young people. The research shows teenage girls in English-speaking nations and Western Europe are particularly affected by spending too much time on social platforms.

A comprehensive study on global well-being released Thursday shows Finland continues to lead the world in happiness for the ninth straight year, while researchers warn that excessive social media usage is severely damaging the mental health of young people worldwide.

The 2026 World Happiness Report, compiled by Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, reveals that Nordic nations continue their dominance in happiness rankings, with Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway all securing spots in the top ten countries.

However, the research raises serious concerns about declining mental health among youth under 25, particularly in English-speaking nations including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where life satisfaction scores have plummeted over the last ten years.

Costa Rica emerged as a surprising success story, jumping from 23rd position in 2023 to fourth place this year. Researchers credit the Central American nation’s rise to strong family relationships and robust social networks.

“We think it’s because of the quality of their social lives and the stability that they currently enjoy,” explained Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, an Oxford economics professor who leads the Wellbeing Research Centre and helps edit the annual report.

“Latin America more generally has strong family ties, strong social ties, a great level of social capital, as a sociologist would call it, more so than in other places,” De Neve added.

The study attributes Finland and other Scandinavian countries’ continued success to their combination of prosperity, equitable wealth distribution, comprehensive social safety nets that shield citizens during economic downturns, and high life expectancy rates.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, countries experiencing major conflicts ranked lowest. Afghanistan received the unhappiest designation once again, with Sierra Leone and Malawi from Africa filling out the bottom three positions.

The rankings drew from responses by approximately 100,000 individuals across 140 nations and territories who evaluated their own life satisfaction. The research was conducted alongside analytics company Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, typically surveying about 1,000 people per country through phone or in-person interviews.

The study’s most alarming findings center on young people’s declining well-being. When asked to rate their lives on a zero-to-ten scale, respondents under 25 in English-speaking and Western European countries showed nearly a full-point decrease over the past decade.

Teenage girls face particularly severe impacts from heavy social media consumption. The research found that 15-year-old girls spending five or more hours daily on social platforms reported notably lower life satisfaction compared to peers with lighter usage.

Interestingly, young people using social media for less than one hour per day showed the highest well-being levels – even higher than those avoiding social media entirely. Yet teenagers currently average approximately 2.5 hours daily on these platforms.

“It is clear that we should look as much as possible to put the ‘social’ back into social media,” De Neve stated.

The research identified specific platform features as particularly harmful, including algorithmic content feeds, influencer culture, and visual-heavy formats that promote social comparison. Platforms focused primarily on communication showed less negative impact on users’ mental health.

Notably, some regions including the Middle East and South America showed more positive relationships between social media use and well-being, with youth happiness remaining stable despite heavy platform usage.

For the second consecutive year, no English-speaking countries appeared in the top ten rankings. The United States placed 23rd, Canada ranked 25th, and Britain came in at 29th position.

These findings arrive as governments worldwide increasingly consider or implement social media restrictions for minors, highlighting growing concerns about these platforms’ impact on young people’s mental health.