Global Study Reveals People Are Twice as Kind as Expected
New research indicates that individuals are generally twice as compassionate than commonly perceived. The findings come from this year’s World Happiness Report, which explored global happiness levels and the public’s perception of stranger kindness.
Wallet Experiment Highlights Trust in Strangers
The World Happiness Report, released on Thursday, employed a unique method to gauge trust in strangers. Researchers deliberately dropped wallets in various locations worldwide to observe how many would be returned. This return rate was then compared against public predictions of wallet returns.
Remarkably, the study discovered that the actual rate of returned wallets was nearly double what people anticipated. This global evidence suggests a stronger link between happiness and the belief in the inherent goodness of others than previously understood.
Finland Tops Happiness Rankings for Seventh Consecutive Year
The report also presented its annual ranking of the world’s happiest nations. For the seventh year in a row, Finland secured the top position. Meanwhile, both the United States and the United Kingdom experienced a decrease in their rankings on this year’s list.
John F. Helliwell, a University of British Columbia economist and a founding editor of the report, commented on the wallet experiment. He stated that the data demonstrates “people are much happier living where they think people care about each other.”
Helliwell further noted that the study revealed a widespread pessimism, as wallets were significantly more likely to be returned than predicted by the public.
Key Findings from the World Happiness Report
The 13th annual World Happiness Report, coinciding with the UN International Day of Happiness, assesses global happiness by asking individuals to evaluate their overall life satisfaction.
Finland once again claimed the top spot, achieving an average score of 7.736 out of 10. Notably, Costa Rica and Mexico have, for the first time, entered the top ten happiest countries.
In contrast, the United Kingdom and the United States experienced a decline in their rankings, falling to 23rd and 24th place respectively, with the latter marking its lowest ever recorded position.
Published by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, the study involved participants rating their lives on a scale from 0 to 10, representing the worst to best possible life. Country rankings are determined by a three-year average of these life evaluation scores.
Additional Insights from the 2025 Report
The 2025 World Happiness Report also revealed several other significant findings:
- Political Polarization and Social Trust: Declining happiness and social trust in the US and parts of Europe are contributing factors to the rise and direction of political polarization.
- Shared Meals and Wellbeing: Sharing meals with others exhibits a strong positive correlation with overall wellbeing across different global regions.
- Household Size and Happiness: Household size appears to be linked to happiness levels. In Mexico and Europe, households with four to five individuals reported the highest levels of happiness.
Trust, Kindness, and Social Connection Underpin Happiness
Jeffrey D. Sachs, president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, emphasized the report’s core message, stating that the findings reaffirm “happiness is rooted in trust, kindness, and social connection.”
Sachs further urged individuals and citizens to act upon this understanding to promote “peace, civility, and wellbeing in communities worldwide.”
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, added perspective on the current societal context. “In this era of social isolation and political polarisation we need to find ways to bring people around the table again – doing so is critical for our individual and collective wellbeing.”