Before Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, Lebanon is one of the most unhappy countries in the world, ranked 145 out of 147 countries in the new World Happiness Report for 2025, released on March 21. Malawi and Bangladesh were ranked higher than Lebanon.

In 2023, Lebanon was in second to last place in the rankings.

This year, among the Arab countries at the bottom of the ranking, Yemen was ranked 140, Egypt 135, Jordan 128, Palestine 108 and Iraq 101. Better ranked are Oman at 52, Saudi Arabia at 32 and the United Arab Emirates at 21, the highest ranking among Arab countries. Syria was not included in this year's report. Israel was 8 globally, Iran 99 and Turkey 94.

Globally, Finland remained at the top, followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden; these four countries have been ranked in this order in previous years.

The World Happiness Report has been regularly published since 2012 by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, to highlight happiness as a criterion for ranking countries. According to its authors, it is based on statistics from the Gallup World Poll, which surveys a representative sample of a thousand people in each country over a three-year period – for the 2025 version, the years 2022, 2023, and 2024 were considered. It primarily relies on the perception of happiness expressed by the inhabitants of the countries, what its authors call "life evaluations."

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Lebanon ranked second unhappiest country in the world

The Gallup Poll asked respondents a question based on the image of a ladder, asking them to evaluate their life from 0 to 10. Questions were then asked about positive emotions, such as laughter, amusement and interest, and negative emotions, such as worry, sadness and anger. The report noteed that decisions made at the national or governmental level in a country impacted the well-being of its population, particularly when they reinforce or destroy feelings of security and peace. Life evaluations were particularly low in countries affected by violence, like in Afghanistan or Lebanon, which was at war with Israel throughout 2024.

For each country, seven variable factors are used to explain the degree of happiness expressed by the people: GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, the perception of corruption in the state, as well as positive and negative effects. The report also included a table of countries hosting the most refugees on their territory. The potential positive effects associated with providing a haven to refugees are negated by the additional pressure that reflects on a local population often already lacking basic means of subsistence. In this ranking, Lebanon is 1, hosting 818,861 refugees, which is 14.9 percent of its population, ahead of Jordan.

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.