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Strangers are about twice as kind as people think, studies that see happiness around the world suggest.
This year’s World Happiness Report – released on Thursday – measured trust in strangers by looking at the number of people who intentionally lost their wallets and returned them, and how many people thought they would be handed over.
The percentage of wallets returned was almost twice as high as people predicted, and studies that gathered evidence from around the world found that beliefs about kindness of others were more closely linked to happiness than previously thought.
The report ranks Finland as the happiest country in the world in its eighth year, with the US and the UK cutting the list.
John F. Heliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia and founding editor of the report, said data from the wallet experiment showed that “people are happier in places where they think people care about each other.”
He added research that showed people were “too pessimistic everywhere.”
Released to mark the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness, the 13th Annual World Happiness Report ranks the happiest countries in the world by asking people to rate their lives.
Finland once again scored the top spot with an average score of 10 points, while Costa Rica and Mexico made their first time in the top 10.
Both the UK and the US have slid down the list on the 23rd and 24th respectively – the latter at its all-time lows.
The study, published by the Welfare Research Center at Oxford University, asked people to assess their lives on a scale of 0-10.
Country rankings are based on the average of these scores over the three years.
We also discovered the 2025 World Happiness Report.
The decline in well-being and social trust in the US and parts of Europe were combined to explain the rise and direction of political polarization.
Jeffrey D. Sachs, president of the United Nations Network for Sustainable Development Solutions, said the findings reconsidered as “happiness is rooted in trust, kindness and social connection.”
“It is up to us to translate this important truth into positive actions and thereby promote peace, courtesy and happiness in communities around the world.
Jan Enmanuel de Neve, director of the Welfare Research Centre in Oxford, added: “In this age of social isolation and political polarization, we need to find a way to bring people around the table again.
