The US fell to its lowest-ever ranking in the 2025 edition of the World Happiness Report amid rising social isolation and political polarisation, while Finland and other Nordic countries remained at the top of the index.

Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands rounded out the top five in the rankings, which are based solely on the answers people give when asked to rate the quality of their own lives

Overall, researchers said that global evidence on the perceived and actual return of lost wallets shows that people are much too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities compared to reality—actual rates of wallet return are around twice as high as people expect.