World Happiness Report

Life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll provide the basis for the annual happiness rankings. They are based on answers to the main life evaluation question asked in the poll.

This is called the Cantril ladder: it asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.

The rankings are calculated by the source based on nationally representative samples for the three years prior to the year of the report, so that data for the 2023 report will draw from survey data from 2020-2022. We show the data for final year of the three-year survey period, i.e. we show the 2020-2022 survey data as 2022.

The only exception is the data for the 2012 report, which uses survey data from 2005-2011, we show this data as the final year of the survey data - 2011.

The number of people and countries surveyed varies year to year, but typically more than 100,000 people in 130 countries participate in the Gallup World Poll each year.

The rankings are based entirely on the survey scores, using the Gallup weights to make the estimates representative.

Cantril ladder data from for current and previous reports can be found at:

2023: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/DataForFigure2.1WHR2023.xls

2022: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2022/Appendix_2_Data_for_Figure_2.1.xls

2021: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2021/DataForFigure2.1WHR2021C2.xls

2020: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2020/WHR20_DataForFigure2.1.xls

2019: https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2019/Chapter2OnlineData.xls

2018: https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2018/WHR2018Chapter2OnlineData.xls

2017: https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2017/online-data-chapter-2-whr-2017.xlsx

2016: https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2016/Online-data-for-chapter-2-whr-2016.xlsx

2015: https://s3.amazonaws.com/happiness-report/2015/Chapter2OnlineData_Expanded-with-Trust-and-Governance.xlsx

2012: https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2012/2012.xlsx