The United States has fallen eight spots and is no longer in the top 20 happiest countries in the world, falling behind countries like Canada, Israel, Kuwait, Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report released by Gallup and its partners.
The new report, which was released on Wednesday, shows that the top 10 happiest countries in the world remain largely unchanged compared to the 2023 report, but that there has been a lot of change when it comes to the top 20.
“Costa Rica and Kuwait are both new entrants to the top 20, at positions 12 and 13,” the report states. “The continuing convergence in happiness levels between the two sides of Europe led last year to Czechia and Lithuania being in the top twenty, nearly joined now by Slovenia in 21st place. The new entrants are matched by the departures of the United States and Germany from the top 20, dropping from 15 and 16 last year to 23 and 24 this year.”
The list of the world’s happiest countries no longer includes any of the world’s largest countries.
“In the top ten countries only the Netherlands and Australia have populations over 15 million,” according to the report. “In the whole of the top twenty, only Canada and the United Kingdom have populations over 30 million.”
One of the main reasons for the United States dropping out of the top 20 is the overall unhappiness of younger people, according to the report.
