Latvia climbs to 41st position in UN world happiness rankings

RIGA - Finland has been ranked the world's happiest nation for the sixth year in a row, while Latvia has climbed to the 41st position, although it is still lagging the two other Baltic states, shows the latest UN World Happiness Report. 

Compared to last year's report, Latvia has risen one position in the world happiness rankings.

Lithuania, which last year ranked 34th, has climbed to the 20th spot and is the only newcomer in the list of the world's 20 happiest nations. Meanwhile, Estonia has risen by five positions to 31st place. 

Authors of the survey note that the Baltic states have significantly improved their performance in recent years, The increase in Estonia’s rank has been especially impressive -

from 66th in 2017 to 31st in 2023. Latvia’s increase was also significant, but smaller, from 54th in 2017 to 41st in 2023. 

"These increases reflect the general increases in life evaluations in Central and Eastern Europe with the Baltic countries converging faster than average toward Western European levels," the US report says.

According to the UN World Happiness Report 2023, the world's top three happiest nations are Finland, Denmark and Iceland, followed by Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and New Zealand. 

Lebanon and Afghanistan have ranked at the bottom of the index as the world's least happy nations.