Happier than the US, UK, and France: Czechia in world's top 20 happiest countries

Today is International Happiness Day, and the newly published World Happiness Report (WHR) 2024 has found that Czechia is the 18th-happiest country globally out of 143 surveyed countries. 

The comprehensive annual report, which uses data from 2021 to 2023, bases its results on surveys from international pollster Gallup to determine countries’ measurements of happiness. 

The study asked respondents to rank their life satisfaction from 0 (the lowest possible score) to 10. The report also asked people to rate the quality of their own lives from 0 to 10. The study also drew on results from the Gallup World Poll, which measures satisfaction with government and politics, health, and social issues.

Czechia’s ranking of 18th is the same as its 2023 and 2022 results. Czechia comes in at an impressive 12th place out of all European countries, with an overall happiness score of 6.8 out of 10 – the same as last year. 

Notably, it is the highest-ranked Central and Eastern European (CEE) country. Neighbors Germany (ranked 24th), Poland (35th), Slovakia (45th), and Visegrad Group partner Hungary (56th) all performed worse. Austria did slightly better, coming in at 14th. Czechia also outscored Singapore, Spain, and Japan in the overall ranking.

From the perspective of 30-year-olds, Czechia is the 10th-happiest country in the world – outperforming Austria and Switzerland. Over 60-year-olds are comparatively less happy, ranking 23rd overall. According to the WHR, older people in Uzbekistan and Costa Rica are more satisfied with life than their Czech counterparts.

Czechia has slipped a little in the ranking since 2021, when it was 16th. The year before that, though, it ranked 19th. However, the country has shown progress in making its residents happier over the years. In 2013, Czechia was ranked 39th in the WHR, but by 2018 it had moved up to 21st.

The WHR noted that converging living standards and broadly improving economies in the past two decades in CEE – especially in Czechia, Lithuania, and Slovenia – have spurred the general improvements in happiness. 

The word's least happy countries are Afghanistan, Lebanon, Lesotho, and Sierra Leone.