We may excel at complaining, grumbling and groaning, but the Irish continue to rank among the happiest people in the world.
Ireland has been ranked 15 out of 147 countries in the annual World Happiness Report that tracks the wellbeing of people across the globe, up two places on last year’s barometer.
Finland retained its place as the happiest country in the world, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands.
People from Israel were ranked the eighth-happiest people on Earth, in spite of 18 months of war and the rising death and destruction in the neighbouring West Bank and Gaza Strip. The state of Palestine ranked 108 on the list.
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Mexico, Australia and New Zealand ranked higher than Ireland, but the Irish were recorded as significantly happier than those in the UK and US, which ranked 23 and 24 respectively on the happiness scale.
Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Lebanon were ranked the least happy countries in the world for 2024.
The “benevolence bump” of kindness, which increased worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic, has remained, with generous acts more than 10 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, the report noted.
Donating and volunteering were more frequent in 2024 than in 2017–19 and the desire to help strangers is still up by an average of 18 per cent from pre-pandemic times. However, the Covid-era surge in benevolent acts did fall “significantly” in 2024, according to the research.
The degree of benevolence in a country also has a “profound impact” on a country’s politics, with populism “largely due to unhappiness”.
When a society is more benevolent, the people who benefit most are those who are least happy, the report says. People’s wellbeing also depends on their perceptions of others’ benevolence, as well as their actual benevolence.
“It’s not just about giving back; it’s about finding belonging, building friendships, and experiencing the profound joy of making a difference,” said Claire McGowran from We Act Campaign, an umbrella group for charities and community groups in Ireland.
Speaking on International Day of Happiness, which is celebrated worldwide on March 20th, she said Ireland’s spirit of meitheal and community runs deep and participation in community and voluntary activities can help combat loneliness.
The growing trend of loneliness and social disconnection among young people is highlighted in the World Happiness Report – the number of young adults who reported having no one they could count on for social support increased by 39 per cent between 2006 and 2023.
Young people in North America and western Europe now report the lowest level of wellbeing among all age groups.
“In general, the western industrial countries are now less happy than they were between 2005 and 2010,” the report says.
People are too pessimistic about, and underestimate, the kindness that exists within their communities, the authors say, citing experiments around the return rate of lost wallets.
A 40-country study on how often wallets were returned to their owners found the rate was twice as high as people expected.
Latin American societies, which are characterised by larger households sizes and strong family bonds, offer “valuable lessons” to societies seeking more happiness, according to the report.
A household of four members tends to experience “abundant and very satisfactory relationships”. However, people in “very large households” experience less happiness, most likely because of greater economic struggles, it notes.
Researchers also found sharing meals was strongly linked with positive wellbeing around the world, and that those who shared more meals with others reported significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and social support.
However, eating alone is becoming more common, with one in four Americans eating all their meals alone, a 53 per cent increase on 2003.
The annual happiness barometer is co-ordinated by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, the analytics company Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
