Canada the happiest G7 country: International report edited by SFU expert
Simon Fraser University
Canada is the happiest country in the G7, according to the World Happiness Report edited by a Simon Fraser University professor.
While Canada remains the only G7 member in the Top 20, the U.S. slides to its lowest-ever position, according to Lara Aknin, distinguished professor of social psychology at SFU and an editor of the report released today.
“The U.K. and the U.S. have fallen out of the top 20,” says Aknin. “Canada is one of the great global powers left in the top 20. Nordic countries remain at the top with Finland holding the number one spot for the eighth year in a row.” Other countries, like Mexico, have jumped up in the ranks, she adds.
Key findings:
- Nordic countries Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden take top four spots
- Canada is the only G7 country to stay in the top 20 (18th)
- The U.S. falls to its lowest-ever position (24th)
- Costa Rica and Mexico break into the top 10 for the first time (6th and 10th)
- Afghanistan ranks the lowest (147th)
Year after year, the world’s happiest countries are often those with strong social safety nets and more pro-social behaviour - small everyday acts of kindness that help foster a feel-good sense of togetherness, says Aknin.
One key finding unpacked in this year’s report is that happiness isn’t just about one’s own actions – it’s also about assuming the best of others. Based on studies that looked at whether people expected others to return a lost wallet, Aknin and her co-authors say people underestimate the kindness of others – with the rate of wallet return being two-times higher than expected.
What we think of others has a large impact on our own well-being as well as how we interact with the world, says Aknin. "If you don't expect to see kindness from others, you might not offer them an opportunity to engage,” she says. “And then you only see what you were expecting all along.”
What we think of others has a large impact on our own well-being as well as how we interact with the world, says Aknin. "If you don't expect to see kindness from others, you might not offer them an opportunity to engage,” she says. “And then you only see what you were expecting all along.”
The annual report is published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainability Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
Country happiness rankings are based on a three-year average of responses to Gallup World Poll question assessing life evaluations. Predictors of cross-country differences are based on quality-of-life assessments, including each country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.
RISING POPULISM, SHRINKING TRUST
Declining happiness and social trust in the U.S. and parts of Europe can help explain the rise of populism and anti-system votes, report authors say. Trust – how much people trust their neighbours, communities, and government – is a key feature that helps researchers identify where people fall on the political spectrum.
“Those that lean right tend to have lower levels of trust, and those that lean left tend to have higher levels of trust,” Aknin says.
The report also found that social trust - the main predictor of deep cultural divides - is tumbling in the U.S., with just 30 per cent of Americans reporting trust in others.
GEN Z HAPPINESS ON THE DECLINE
Canada, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand saw the biggest declines in happiness in young adults in this year’s report.
More people from top-ranking countries reported having someone they can turn to for support when times are tough - and social connection is vital to young adults’ well-being - but the report flags an alarming trend.
In 2023, 19 per cent of young adults across the world reported having no one they could count on for social support, from 39 per cent in 2006.
“This perceived lack of support is critical and worrisome because social relationships are a key source of happiness," Aknin says.
TABLE FOR ONE
The report also looks at the growing trend of eating alone. Close to 20 per cent of Americans now eat most of their meals solo, an increase of 53 per cent over the last two decades. According to the report, eating meals alone is an important measure of social connection, on par with income level and unemployment, and a key predictor of happiness.
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Article Title
World Happiness Report 2025
Oh, Canada, You’re Not the Enemy…That’s Coming From Within
Windsor, Canada from the Underground Railwood Memorial, Detroit, Michigan. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.
Perhaps if you grow up in penthouse on top of a gilded tower in the middle of the predatory capitalist shark tank known as “New York City,” your world view is eternally corrupted by your pitiful life experience. Perhaps you think every human and nation on the planet are wholly focused on trying to rip you off every day on every thing.
But when you bring that sorry and twisted perspective to the White House you make real mistakes in discerning who is or isn’t your enemy, who is or isn’t trying to wheedle every nickel they can get out of you, and who is or isn’t a threat to our nation.
So it seems as Donald Trump tries to convince the American people that somehow our oldest, most loyal, and kindest neighbors and allies — the Canadians — are an enemy bent on destroying the United States through imaginary economic attacks.
Such are the mistakes made when one sees the world through the blurry and myopic lens of greed, driven by endless avarice to always want to take what others have for yourself.
But then there’s the rest of us. You know, the people who have actually lived in border states, traveled the breadth and length across the vastness of Canada’s incredible landscape from ocean to ocean. And most importantly, interacted with and received the kind and courteous reception of which Canadians are justly proud and internationally famous.
As those of us who have spent time in the Great North know, Canada is indeed a nation of immigrants, but who are welcomed rather than vilified and demonized, and rounded up in detention camps for deportation — legally or not.
Canada has also treated its Indigenous citizens, whom they name the First People, far more honorably and fairly than the U.S., going so far as to give Nunavut, the nation’s largest and northernmost province, to the Inuit people to self-govern.
And no, Canada has no ambitions to take over Greenland, Panama or threaten the rest of the world by interjecting itself as a destructive influence in the lives and governance of other people and nations. Nor does Canada threaten the planet with vastly more than enough nuclear weapons to completely end life on earth — that would be the U.S.
The Canadian people do not in any way, shape or form deserve the treatment they are receiving from Donald Trump. Where, in any form of international diplomacy, is a threat to simply subsume another sovereign nation accepted — particularly when both nations are long-standing democracies and allies? Nowhere but in the twisted mind of Trump who thinks insulting Canada’s Prime Minister as “governor” is acceptable.
None of this makes any sense for the rest of us and runs completely contrary to our personal experiences with Canadians. As a friend who recently returned from a week skiing in British Columbia related, there is now a proliferation of bumper stickers that simply say “Pro American, Anti-Trump.” Indeed, that phrase is finding wider use across the globe as the rest of the world wonders what happened to the United States and how we went from considering long-standing friends as enemies?
And so I say to my lifelong Canadian friends: “I am flying the Canadian flag to say I’m sorry and embarrassed by the baseless tariff war, the insults, and the aggressive threats to take over your nation — and urge others to do so.” Remember, more than 75 million Americans voted against Donald Trump, who failed to even crack 50% of the total votes cast. We are still here, and we will continue to be pro-American, pro-Canadian — and anti-Trump.
US happiness sinks as more Americans eat alone: survey
By AFP
March 20, 2025
A couple smile during the sunset in Tlajomulco de Zuniga, Mexico
Anna KORKMAN
The United States fell to its lowest happiness ranking ever partly due to a rise in the number of Americans eating their meals alone, an annual UN-sponsored report said Thursday.
Finland ranked as the world’s happiest country for the eighth straight year in the World Happiness Report, with locals and experts thanking its grand lakes and strong welfare system for boosting its mood.
Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, once again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world.
The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012, when it recorded its highest showing at number 11.
“The number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 percent over the past two decades,” the authors said, noting that sharing meals “is strongly linked with well-being”.
In 2023, roughly one in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, the report said.
“The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States,” it said.
It also noted that the United States was one of few countries to see a rise of so-called “deaths of despair” — from suicide or substance abuse — at a time when those deaths are declining in a majority of countries.
The report surveyed people worldwide in 2022-2024, before US President Donald Trump’s shakeup of national and global affairs since returning to the White House in January.
Nordic countries all stayed among the 10 happiest, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland, which slightly extended its lead over runner-up Denmark.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top 10 for the first time, at the sixth and 10th spot respectively.
The happiness ranking is based on a three-year average of individuals’ self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.
– Finns ‘relatively satisfied’ –
“It seems that Finnish people are relatively satisfied with their lives,” Frank Martela, an assistant professor specialised in well-being and happiness research at Aalto University, told AFP.
It could largely be explained by Finns living in “quite a well-functioning society”, he said.
“Democracy is functioning well, we have free elections, free speech, low levels of corruption and all of these have shown to predict higher levels of national well-being,” Martela said.
He added that the Nordic countries also all have relatively strong welfare systems — with parental leave, unemployment benefits and mostly universal healthcare — which also contribute to higher levels of well-being on average.
Eveliina Ylitolonen, a 23-year-old student in Helsinki, said she believed that Finns’ focus on enjoying beautiful nature could help explain the consistently high level of happiness in the Nordic country, known for its deep forests and over 160,000 lakes.
“Nature is an important part of this happiness,” Ylitolonen told AFP.
Jamie Sarja-Lambert, a professional video gamer who moved to Finland from the United Kingdom, agreed.
“Seems like everyone is a lot more in touch with nature, going outside and socialising, more of a community,” he told AFP.
This year, the authors of the happiness report said new evidence indicates that engaging in acts of generosity and believing in the kindness of others are “significant predictors of happiness, even more so than earning a higher salary”.
They also noted that in general “people are too pessimistic about the kindness of their communities”, and that “the return rate of lost wallets is much higher than people expect”.
Nordic countries also “rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets”.
Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain
President Donald Trump’s threats against Canada and Mexico are providing both countries with unprecedented opportunities to free themselves from U.S. influence.
By threatening to annex Canada, send troops into Mexico, and impose sweeping tariffs on both countries, the president has led Canadians and Mexicans to question their longstanding ties to the United States. Upsurges of nationalism in both countries may lead them to take actions that weaken the dominant position of the United States in North America and the world.
“Our allies across the world will look at America and see a country in decline under Donald Trump,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on March 3.
A Powerhouse Island
In Washington, it has long been taken for granted that the United States has acquired unparalleled advantages from its relations with Canada and Mexico. Officials have prided themselves on positioning the United States as the dominant center of a regional system in which Canada and Mexico reinforce U.S. power from the periphery. The three countries form “a powerhouse island,” as former Secretary of Defense James Mattis once called it.
Geography provides the United States with unique advantages. Not only is the United States insulated from threats to its security by the oceans along its coastlines, as Trump himself has recognized, but it shares borders with countries to the north and south that pose no military threat. By maintaining close relations with Canada and Mexico, the United States has acquired geopolitical security that is the envy of great powers across the world.
A U.S.-centered North America has also provided the United States with economic advantages, as Trump has recognizedin the past. Under the North American trading system, which was formalized under NAFTA and revised by the first Trump administration as USMCA, the United States receives a constant flow of raw materials and finished products from Canada and Mexico.
USMCA “will ensure our region remains the world’s economic powerhouse,” a senior State Department official insistedduring the first Trump administration.
The Trump Effect
Since Trump’s re-election in 2024, however, he has made several moves that have thrown the North American system into question. His calls to make Canada the 51st state and his threats to launch military operations in Mexico have sparked a backlash. Many Canadians and Mexicans have turned against the United States, alarmed by Trump’s hostile threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on their countries.
Trump has made numerous claims to justify his demands, many based on the notion that Canada and Mexico are taking advantage of the United States, but his charges have been rejected. Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Trump of being dishonest, dismissing his attempt to link Canada to drugs as “completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false.”
More broadly, Canadians and Mexicans have been responding with upsurges of nationalism. Canadians have been participating in a “Buy Canadian” movement, and Mexicans have been rallying behind a “Made in Mexico” campaign.
Trump’s critics in the United States have largely focused on how tariffs may affect corporate profits and consumer prices, but the U.S. foreign policy establishment remains most concerned about the implications of Trump’s threats for the U.S.-centered North American system. Strategists have long feared the potential for nationalist movements to shift their countries away from the United States, perhaps even leading them out of the U.S. orbit altogether.
Several U.S. lawmakers have expressed dismay at Trump’s treatment of Canada and Mexico, sensing only lies and danger in his efforts to appear tough and bend the world to his will.
“He plays as the world’s biggest bully and hits our closest allies with tariffs,” Representative Robin Kelly (D-IL) said on March 11.
Options for Canada and Mexico
Faced with such high tariffs, Canada and Mexico may consider multiple responses. One basic approach would be to decouple their economies from the United States, just as the United States is doing with China. Given that Canada and Mexico maintain trading relationships with countries across the Atlantic and Pacific regions, they have multiple options for sending their exports to other parts of the world.
Another possibility is for Canada and Mexico to embrace alternative models of economic development. If they no longer want to focus on exporting raw materials and assembled goods to foreign markets, then they can shift toward industrialization, just as many Latin American countries attempted during the Cold War. By protecting their industries with retaliatory tariffs against the United States, Canada and Mexico can opt for independent industrial development, perhaps enabling both countries to one day rival U.S. economic power.
In pursuing more nationalist approaches, Canada and Mexico might even nationalize industries, just as Mexico did in the 1930s with its oil industry. Currently, the Mexican government’s “Plan Mexico” provides it with a starting point for reinvigorating the country’s manufacturing industry and making it more independent of the United States.
Any of these changes would have major implications for U.S. power. Not only would the United States lose some of its most important supply chains, but it would find it more difficult to coerce Canada and Mexico into reinforcing U.S. geopolitical power from the periphery.
Appeasement or Independence
For now, the leaders of Canada and Mexico are moving carefully, reluctant to make any moves that may lead to a rupture in relations with the United States. Their strategy has been to appease Trump, for instance by sending military forces to their borders in response to his menacing rhetoric about drugs and migrants. Although they have displayed a willingness to enact retaliatory tariffs, they have indicated that they want to avoid a trade war.
Whatever the leaders of Canada and Mexico decide over the long term, however, Trump’s actions have generated burstsof nationalism that provide both countries with opportunities to make fundamental changes in their relations with the United States. As long as Trump continues to threaten Canada and Mexico, both countries will find it possible to implement transformative policies that move them away from their subordinate positions on the U.S. periphery.
Given that U.S. global power is so strongly rooted in North America, Trump has effectively put Canada and Mexico into a position to make decisions that may determine the future of the American empire.
This first appeared on FPIF.
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