We base our usual happiness rankings on a three-year average to increase the sample size to give more precise estimates. Weighted averages are used to construct population-representative national averages for each year in each country. Typically, around 1,000 responses are gathered annually for each country. Each respondent provides a numerical response on this scale, referred to as the Cantril ladder. The Gallup World Poll, which remains the principal source of data in this report, asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and worst possible as a 0. In World Happiness Report 2021, we pay more attention than usual to specific daily emotions (the components of positive and negative affect) to better track how COVID-19 has altered different aspects of life. Our happiness rankings are based on life evaluations, as the more stable measure of the quality of people’s lives. Our measurement of subjective well-being relies on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions (described in the report as positive and negative affect). Technical Box 1: Measuring Subjective Well-Being. Our results are summarized in a short concluding section. A central feature of our evidence is the extent to which the quality of the social context, and especially the extent to which people trust their governments, and have trust in the benevolence of others, supports not only their ability to maintain their happiness before and during the pandemic but also reduces the COVID-19 death toll by facilitating more effective strategies for limiting the spread of the pandemic while maintaining and building a sense of common purpose. All are found to be strong supports for well-being, and for effective COVID-19 strategies.įourth, we turn to examine how different features of national demographic, social and political structures have combined with the consequences of policy strategies and disease exposure to help explain international differences in 2020 death rates from COVID-19.

We present new evidence on the power of expected benevolence, as measured by the extent to which people think their lost wallets would be returned if found by neighbours, strangers, or the police. We find evidence that trust and benevolence are strong supports for well-being, and also for successful strategies to control COVID-19. Third, we review and extend the evidence on the links between trust and well-being. Second, we use responses at the individual level to investigate how COVID-19 has affected the happiness of different population subgroups, thus attempting to assess possible inequalities in the distribution of the well-being consequences of COVID-19.

We then place these rankings beside those based on data for 2017-2019, before COVID-19 struck, and also present our usual ranking figure based on the three-year average of life evaluations 2018-2020. The resulting rankings exclude the many countries without 2020 surveys, and the smaller sample sizes, compared to the three-year averages usually used, increase their imprecision. We also devote equal efforts to unravelling how geography, demography, and the spread of the virus have interacted with each country’s scientific knowledge and social and political underpinnings, especially their institutional and social trust levels explain international differences in death rates from COVID-19.įirst, we shall present the overall life evaluations and measures of positive and negative emotions (affect) for those countries for which 2020 surveys are available. While still relying on the Gallup World Poll as our primary source for our measures of the quality of life, this year, we tap a broader variety of data to trace the size and distribution of the happiness impacts of COVID-19. Our capacity to do this has been shaken at the same time as the lives we are struggling to assess. In this chapter, our central purpose remains just what it has always been – to measure and use subjective well-being to track and explain the quality of lives all over the globe. COVID-19 has shaken, taken, and reshaped lives everywhere. This ninth World Happiness Report is unlike any that have come before.

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