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Canada ranked happiest country in the G7

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Canada ranked happiest country in the G7

Canada has been ranked the happiest country among the G7 in the 2025 World Happiness Report. 

Contents
2025 World Happiness RankingMethodologyLife EvaluationsPositive and negative emotionsHow happy are newcomers in Canada?Sense of belonging to local communitiesSense of belonging to Canada

Canada has performed well in these rankings year-over-year, consistently ranking among the happiest countries in both the G7 and G20.

2025 World Happiness Ranking

Canada ranked 18th in the global happiness ranking for 2025. The country saw a slight decline in its ranking from 2024, when it placed 15th globally.

Canada is not alone among the G7 in seeing a decline in its happiness ranking. All G7 countries have seen declines in their happiness ranking in the last five years, including the United States of America (ranked 24th this year), and the United Kingdom (ranked 23rd this year). Notably, Germany, which in 2021 was ranked higher than Canada, now ranks 22nd in terms of global happiness.

Between 2021 and 2024 Canada achieved the following rankings:

Year Global happiness ranking
2020 11
2021 14
2022 15
2023 13
2024 15

Finland continued to perform strongly on the World Happiness Ranking, holding first place for the eighth year in a row.

Since the inception of the World Happiness Ranking in 2013, a consistent trend has been the dominance of Scandinavian countries within the top 10 happiest countries. In 2025, six of the 10 happiest countries in the world were from this part of the world.

The following table breaks down the 10 countries ranked the happiest in 2025, along with their life evaluation score, which is explained in further detail below:

Rank Country Life Evaluation Score
1 Finland 7.736
2 Denmark 7.521
3 Iceland 7.515
4 Sweden 7.345
5 Netherlands 7.306
6 Costa Rica 7.274
7 Norway 7.262
8 Israel 7.234
9 Luxembourg 7.122
10 Mexico 6.979

Methodology

The World Happiness Rankings are based on a comprehensive measurement of subjective well-being, which includes three main indicators:

  • Life evaluations;
  • Positive emotions; and
  • Negative emotions.

Life Evaluations

The methodology of the World Happiness Ranking is designed to empower respondents to evaluate their own well-being, emphasizing a bottom-up approach where individuals provide personal assessments of their lives.

While various life factors are considered to explain differences in life evaluations, some variables like unemployment or inequality are not included, due to a lack of comparable data across all countries.

The primary measure used for the rankings is life evaluations, considered the most reliable indicator of quality of life. For each year’s rankings, scores of life evaluations are averaged over the last three years to ensure consistency.

Data is gathered from the Gallup World Poll, where respondents are asked to evaluate their current life using a scale called the Cantril Ladder*. Respondents rate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the best possible life and 0 being the worst possible life.

Aside from the Cantril Ladder, life evaluations are also broken down into other measures that tend to be correlated to happiness, such as self-reports on perceptions of

  • Social support;
  • Freedom;
  • Generosity; and
  • Corruption.

*The Cantril Ladder allows respondents to self-anchor their well-being based on their unique perspectives. This subjective approach aligns with efforts from organizations like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to measure well-being and develop comprehensive metrics for evaluating national progress.

Typically, around 1,000 responses are collected annually per country, and population-representative national averages are calculated for each year. To enhance precision, the happiness rankings are based on a three-year average of these life evaluations.

Positive and negative emotions

The measurement of emotions is divided into two categories, each with three sub-categories:

  • Positive Emotions: The average of responses to questions about experiencing laughter, enjoyment, and interest; and
  • Negative Emotions: The average of responses to questions about experiencing worry, sadness, and anger.

Although these self-reports on emotion contribute to the happiness ranking, life evaluations are preferred for international comparisons due to their stability and ability to capture a broader view of life circumstances.

How happy are newcomers in Canada?

Though there is not much research specifically studying newcomer happiness in Canada, the studies that do exist show positive trends. In a 2024 study conducted by research firm Pollara Strategic Insights, 79% of the 1,507 newcomer respondents reported feeling “overall happiness in Canada”.

Despite this research deficit, there is a rich body of literature studying newcomer’s self-reports of feelings often associated with happiness and well-being.

For example, studies conducted by Statistics Canada reveal that newcomers to the country generally report a strong sense of belonging to their local communities and to Canada as a whole. This sense of belonging is often underscored by newcomer’s perception of their quality of life and level of social integration within Canada.

Newcomers’ self-reports in this regard are often stronger than the natural-born Canadian population and tend to vary by region.

Sense of belonging to local communities

A 2022 study into immigrants’ sense of belonging to Canada found that

  • Recent immigrants (those who arrived in the past five years) reported a strong sense of belonging to their local community at a rate of 50%.
  • Long-term immigrants (those who arrived more than five years ago) reported a strong sense of belonging at a rate of 48%.

In comparison, Canadian-born individuals reported a strong sense of belonging at a rate of 46%.

Sense of belonging to Canada

A 2023 study conducted by Statistics Canada found that the strength of immigrants’ sense of belonging to Canada varies across the country, with notable regional differences:

Immigrants living in Atlantic Canada and Ontario report the strongest sense of belonging to Canada.

Immigrants in British Columbia and Alberta report a weaker sense of belonging compared to those in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

In Alberta, the lower sense of belonging is largely attributed to factors such as

  • Sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., years since landing, population group, age, and education);
  • Perceptions of discrimination; and
  • Structural conditions, including unemployment rates, median income, and the size of the immigrant population.

If these factors were equalized, immigrants in Alberta would likely report a sense of belonging similar to those in Ontario.

In British Columbia, the difference in sense of belonging is not explained by the same factors affecting Alberta. Even after accounting for sociodemographic characteristics, discrimination, and structural conditions, immigrants in Ontario are more likely to report a very strong sense of belonging to Canada than those in British Columbia.

Despite these regional differences, immigrants in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces consistently report especially favorable views about their sense of belonging to Canada. Additionally, immigrants in Ontario are more likely than native-born Canadians to report a very strong sense of belonging to Canada.

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