Hong Kong sinks in World Happiness Report index to lowest-ever position

2026-03-20 - 05:31

Hong Kong has fallen to its lowest-ever position on the World Happiness Report, falling down the index for the sixth consecutive year to 90th out of 147 territories. The study was released on Thursday to coincide with the UN’s International Day of Happiness on Friday. A “Happy Hong Kong” promotion. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP. The city dropped from 88th to 90th in the latest index, sandwiched between Georgia and Armenia. China ranked 65th, Taiwan 26th and Singapore 36th. The US sat at 23rd place, and the UK at 29th. Macau was not surveyed. Finland, Iceland and Denmark occupied the top spots, whilst residents of Malawi, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan were found to be the most unhappy. For the second year in a row, no major English-speaking country made the top 10. However, for the first time in the report’s 14-year history, a Latin American country appeared in the top five. Costa Rica rose to fourth place, from 23rd in 2023. World Happiness Report 2025. Photo: World Happiness Report. This year’s report focused on social media usage. It said declines in well-being among young people are linked to heavy social media use, especially among teenage girls in Western European and English-speaking countries. Researchers said most US college students wished social media platforms didn’t exist. “They use them because others are using them, but they would prefer it if no one did,” the report said. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP. “The most problematic platforms are those where the main use is passive, and the main material is visual (encouraging social comparisons) and often comes from influencers.” Survey of 100,000 The 2025 World Happiness Report is a partnership between its editorial board and pollster Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Based on a Gallup World Poll, the survey asked around 1,000 people in each country to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life ranked as 10 and the worst possible as zero. It used weights to construct population-representative national averages, with the final rankings based on the average of three years of samples. Over 100,000 people in 140 countries and territories participate in the annual survey. The report also cross-referenced the results along the lines of six key variables: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and freedom from corruption. The Happy Hong Kong campaign. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. “Taken together, these six variables explain more than three-quarters of the variation in life evaluations across countries and years, using data from 2006 through 2025,” the report said. “The six variables were originally chosen as the best available measures of factors established in both experimental and survey data as having significant links to subjective wellbeing, and especially to life evaluations.”