Mapping Happiness Levels Across Europe

Europe is consistently one of the happiest regions in the world, second only to Oceania.

While many Europeans benefit from strong social support systems and relatively high incomes compared to other regions, happiness levels vary significantly across the continent.

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, showcases the findings for European countries from the 2025 World Happiness Report, an annual publication that measures global contentment based on life evaluations, social support, freedom of choice, GDP per capita, and additional indicators of well-being.

The data is drawn from the Gallup World Poll and various supplementary sources.

Each nation’s score in the World Happiness Report reflects an average of life evaluations over a three-year span (2022–2024 for this edition), ranking countries from highest to lowest. A more detailed explanation of the report’s methodology can be found at the end of this article.

The Most and Least Happy Countries in Europe 2025

Below, we show the happiness scores of European countries from the World Happiness Report 2025.

Global Rank	Country	Average Happiness Score (2022-2024)
1	Finland	7.7
2	Denmark	7.5
3	Iceland	7.5
4	Sweden	7.3
5	Netherlands	7.3
7	Norway	7.3
9	Luxembourg	7.1
13	Switzerland	6.9
14	Belgium	6.9
15	Ireland	6.9
16	Lithuania	6.8
17	Austria	6.8
19	Slovenia	6.8
20	Czechia	6.8
22	Germany	6.8
23	United Kingdom	6.7
26	Poland	6.7
29	Kosovo	6.7
31	Serbia	6.6
33	France	6.6
35	Romania	6.6
38	Spain	6.5
39	Estonia	6.4
40	Italy	6.4
48	Malta	6.3
50	Slovakia	6.2
51	Latvia	6.2
56	Bosnia and Herzegovina	6.1
60	Portugal	6.0
66	Russia	5.9
67	Cyprus	5.9
69	Hungary	5.9
71	Montenegro	5.9
72	Croatia	5.9
80	Moldova	5.8
81	Greece	5.8
85	Bulgaria	5.6
86	North Macedonia	5.5
89	Albania	5.4
91	Georgia	5.4
111	Ukraine	4.7

Finland continues its reign as the happiest country in the world for its eighth consecutive year. Access to nature, high levels of trust and freedom in its society, and a strong welfare system all contribute to its high ranking.

Six of the 10 happiest countries in the world are in Europe, including all five Nordic countries: Finland (#1), Denmark (#2), Iceland, (#3), Sweden (#4), and Norway (#7). The Netherlands (#5) and Luxembourg (#9) round out the list.

Nordic countries have consistently ranked among the happiest in the world due to their strong social safety nets, emphasis on work-life balance, high levels of trust and social cohesion, and low levels of income inequality.

Additionally, several European cities ranked in The Economist’s top 10 most livable cities in the world in 2024, including Vienna, Copenhagen, and Zurich which made up the top three spots.

On the other end, Ukraine continues to be the unhappiest country in Europe amid its ongoing war with Russia, which has devastated its economy through massive GDP losses and infrastructure destruction, displaced millions of citizens, and caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties.

To compare country happiness rankings from a different region, check out this graphic that visualizes the happiness levels across the Americas.