🔍 The research is clear: social connection is crucial to our happiness. But it’s up to us to make it a priority.

🎆 In our final newsletter of 2025, we’re challenging you to remember some of the key insights from this year’s report. Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

WHR editor, Prof Lord Richard Layard, recently shared his top tips for a happier holiday season, based on the insights from #WHR2025. Swipe to see the three habits he recommends over the season. 👉

#WHR2025 contained the first global comparison of charities to find the most cost-effective organisations using a standardised metric of value: wellbeing-years (WELLBYs). By picking carefully, donors can have vastly more impact on happiness for the same monetary cost.

“Give yourself opportunities to be proven right or wrong about people. If the data is right, people will be kinder than we expect.” Read about the importance of not being too pessimistic about other people’s kindness in this latest @vox.com article.👇

📵 From today, anyone under 16 in Australia won’t be able to have a social media account, to protect youth wellbeing. But the relationship between social media and subjective wellbeing has been hotly debated. For #WHR2026 leading researchers will examine the global evidence.

↔ Unhappy people are attracted to political extremes. Low-trust people are more often found on the far right, whereas high-trust people are more inclined to vote far left. Corin Blanc, co-author of #WHR2025 Ch7, went into the details at this year’s @isqols.bsky.social Conference.

Most Latin American countries report higher wellbeing than predicted by their GDP per capita. As Lina Martinez and colleagues explore in Chapter Four of #WHR2025, household size could be a plausible explanation for why this is. 👇

🧘‍♂️ While meditation can be a very solitary practice, fascinating research by Barbara Fredrickson and colleagues reveals that meditation practices that cultivate compassion for ourselves and others are some of the most effective for boosting our #wellbeing.

What can our holiday traditions teach us about happiness? Intentionally slowing down to prioritise connection and care within our communities can boost #wellbeing for everyone, all year round. Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

What makes Finland the world’s happiest country? 🇫🇮 That was the question put to the Finnish President by Firstpost. His answer? 🫂 Having a sense of meaning, trust, security, 🌳 a close connection to nature, 📝 and valuing continuous learning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIKv...

🚧 Don’t get in your own way when it comes to forming social connections. World Happiness Report Editor, Lara Atkin, is challenging us to give more weight to our positive social interactions, to prevent ourselves from being discouraged by one or two negative experiences 👇

🤗 Happiness loves company. People consistently rate everyday activities as more enjoyable when interacting with someone else. That's according to research examining more than 105,000 episodes of activity by 41,000 participants across four years of the American Time Use Survey.

🧍‍♀️↔️🧍‍♂️Social connection buffers us from #stress, but social disconnection is prevalent and increasing among young people. Field interventions show promising results in improving the social networks of undergraduate students. Read more in Ch5 #WHR2025 👉 www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2025/conn...

Three words to sum up the field of happiness and wellbeing research? Other people matter. 🎯

Why do we publish a World Happiness Report rather than a World Misery Report? 😓 Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

This World Mental Health Day, we’re reminded that our governments should invest in what matters most. 💰 The @cep-lse.bsky.social ’s Value for Money report weighs up the cost of potential policies against the tangible impact they can have on people’s life satisfaction.

It’s Do Something Nice Day. And these three acts of kindness don’t only help others, they can also improve your own life satisfaction. Which one can you do today? Explore the relationship between happiness and prosocial behaviour 👉 www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/happ...

What is happiness? Many think of it as a positive emotional state: smiling and feeling good (positive affect). It is often used to describe assessments and judgements too (life satisfaction). Interestingly, the countries most satisfied with life are not smiling the most. 👇 #WorldSmileDay

🗣️ “...I suggest we go further and reclaim the idiom ‘misery loves company’. If these findings tell us anything, it’s that *happiness* loves company.” Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

⛓️💥 Social relationships provide one of the most reliable paths to happiness, but sometimes life gets in the way. Yet, people are surprisingly hesitant to reconnect – by better understanding why, we can learn how to encourage people to reach out.👇 doi.org/10.1038/s442...

Deaths of despair are preventable deaths due to suicide, alcohol abuse, and drug overdose. Encouragingly, increases in prosocial behaviours are reliably connected to decreasing deaths of despair around the world. Read more in Ch6 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

Your money can buy happiness for others. But the cost-effectiveness of donations, measured by wellbeing-years (WELLBYs), varies dramatically between charities. Discover the five charities that have the lowest cost per WELLBY, according to @happierlives.bsky.social research in #WHR2025.

🫠 We know that reaching out to an old friend will make us happy, so why does it feel so difficult? Listen to Lara Aknin discuss the social psychology behind our hesitance to reconnect on this episode of Behind the Data👇 shows.acast.com/behind-the-d...

🎒 What makes for a happy adolescence? The exact factors vary for every individual, but analysis of data collected from over 90,000 15-year-olds across 13 OECD countries reveals some persistent indicators correlated with satisfaction with life. Read more in Ch3 of #WHR2024👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

NEW: We’ve assembled a global team of leading researchers to examine the association between social media and #wellbeing for World Happiness Report 2026.👇

💰 Does money make us happier? While richer countries generally exhibit higher average levels of #wellbeing, this correlation is significantly influenced by social variables – like healthy life expectancy and social support. Read more, via ‪@cep-lse.bsky.social‬ 👉 blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities...

💜💖 When it comes to social connections, both *quantity* and *quality* are important for our #wellbeing. Read more in Ch5 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

Since most of us spend around a third of our lives at work, isn’t it about time we started taking workplace #wellbeing seriously? Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

3️⃣ Caring for, and sharing with, other people feels good. And we can amplify the #wellbeing benefit of caring and sharing in the context of three Cs: caring connections, choice, and clear positive impact. Read more in Ch2 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

🥰 Social media is an invaluable source of data for #wellbeing research: researchers can study emotional experiences by analysing publicly-available posts (emojis and all!). Read more in Ch4 of #WHR2022👇 www.worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/usin... | #WorldEmojiDay

↔️ Of the 19 countries that have gained a point or more on the 0–10 scale of life evaluation since 2010-2012, 12 are in Central and Eastern Europe, reflecting the European happiness convergence that has been clear for more than a decade.

🇮🇳 Average life evaluation in India has never passed 5 (out of 10), though it has been steadily climbing since 2020. #WorldPopulationDay

🧒 Childhood and adolescence are important stages of life in their own right – but they are also hugely consequential for our future #wellbeing.👇

🟣⚪️⚪️⚪️ In 2023, roughly 1 in 4 Americans reported eating all of their meals alone the previous day – an increase of 53% since 2003. Read more in Ch3 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

💪 Social connection is vital for our #wellbeing, and especially that of young adults: connecting with others buffers from the toxic effects of stress and significantly enhances subjective wellbeing during young adulthood. Read more in Ch5 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

💼 Happiness at work isn’t just good for people – it’s also good for the bottom line. Companies with higher employee #wellbeing scores outperform their counterparts in multiple measures of firm performance: increased firm value, higher return on assets, and bigger profits.

🇬🇧 The World Wellbeing Movement estimates that nearly 7 million people – around 13% of the adult population – are living below the Happiness Poverty Line in the UK. Read more in the 2025 UK Wellbeing Report, endorsed by the World Happiness Report👇 worldwellbeingmovement.org/uk-wellbeing...

👀 Want to compare Costa Rica and Cambodia, or take a look at Libya and Luxembourg? How about examining Ecuador and Estonia? Dive into our open-access Happiness Dashboard, powered by Gallup, and explore global #wellbeing data over the past two decades.👇 data.worldhappiness.report

⏳ There’s still time to submit your chapter proposal for World Happiness Report 2026, taking a closer look at the relationship between social media and subjective #wellbeing. Find out more👇 worldhappiness.report/news/submit-...

📲 We’re inviting chapter proposals from researchers around the world for World Happiness Report 2026, taking a closer look at the relationship between social media and subjective #wellbeing. Find out more and submit your proposal by Sunday 15 June👇 worldhappiness.report/news/submit-...

📚 Happy International Archives Day! Did you know that every chapter of *every* World Happiness Report is available on our website, free-of-charge? Dive into our #wellbeing research archive👇 worldhappiness.report/analysis/

#️⃣ The relationship between social media and subjective #wellbeing is complex. In our latest email newsletter, we take a look at some of the current evidence. Read more 👉 mailchi.mp/worldhappine... Subscribe 👉 worldhappiness.report/subscribe/

🤲 Some countries are kinder than others, yet it is the *belief* in the kindness of other people that is more closely linked with population #wellbeing than actual reported instances of benevolent acts. Read more in Ch2 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr... | #VolunteersWeek

🥰 Findings published in World Happiness Report 2025 show that belief in the kindness of others is a strong predictor of population #wellbeing, yet we are far too pessimistic about levels of benevolence among our neighbours. Read more in Ch2 of #WHR2025👇 doi.org/10.18724/whr...

🧑‍💻 World Happiness Report 2026 will focus on the relationship between social media and subjective #wellbeing, featuring a chapter from ‪@jonathanhaidt.bsky.social, author of The Anxious Generation. Find out more and submit your own proposal by Sunday 15 June👇 worldhappiness.report/news/submit-...

🗣️ “People consistently and universally underestimate the kindness of others.” Read more via CNBC Make It 👇 www.cnbc.com/2025/05/29/a...

😢 When asked to rate their lives, the average response among the population of Afghanistan is just 1.36 out of 10. For Afghan women, it is even lower – just 1.16.

💰 Governments spend billions on our behalf – but how can we ensure policies create the conditions for happy, healthy lives? Here, a series of current and proposed UK policies are presented by their #wellbeing benefit relative to their net cost.👇

🏛️ Rational, not radical. How can a government best serve its people? To us, the answer is clear.👇