With the launch of the ninth World Happiness Report on Saturday, the world will find out -- as it does every International Day of Happiness -- which country was the world's happiest during the previous year, based on Gallup World Poll data.
However, 2020 was a year like no other. While these rankings have become a mainstay of happiness celebrations since 2012, the COVID-19 pandemic threw into question whether Gallup would even be able to safely field our World Poll surveys and collect quality data.
But Gallup prevailed, and the analysis of these and other data from the authors of the 2021 World Happiness Report sheds considerable light on the effect that the pandemic had on people's subjective wellbeing and on humanity as a whole.
The report this year offers an unprecedented look at how people's lives have fared under COVID-19, including through the lenses of their mental health, their social connections and their lives at work, and what the implications are for people to live both well and long.
After a year like no other, read the report like no other here.
For complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details.
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