Nordic Countries Lead in Life Evaluation but Not Emotional Well-Being

The World Happiness Report is the leading source of global well-being rankings and is based on a single life evaluation metric: the Cantril Ladder, which asks participants to rate their life on a ladder between the best and worst possible life. On this scale, wealthier nations score higher, and the Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland) consistently rank at the top. We used all Gallup World Poll data between 2006 and 2023 (Ncountries = 158, Nparticipants = 2,588,913) to create rankings for other well-being dimensions. While the Nordic countries are at the top on life evaluation and score near the top on enjoyment, this lead does not extend to other positive and negative emotions. A majority of Nordic countries are more stressed and less well-rested than the global average. We found different regions to lead in different aspects of well-being; for example, Asian countries tend to lead in positive affect. We found that income explains 72% of the between-country variation in life evaluation – if this is residualized to derive “the life evaluation money cannot buy,” we found Central American countries to rank highest, with the Nordics dropping to a mean rank of 35. This study stresses the importance of a multi-dimensional understanding of global well-being and points to the many types of “exceptionalism” beyond the Nordic’s in life evaluation.