Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, and Sweden are the top five happiest countries in the world for 2026. This annual report is compiled by the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre, in collaboration with the UN to present the World Happiness Report, as recalled by BBC Mundo. The report includes 140 countries and ranks the happiest nations. The 2026 Global Happiness Index, published by the United Nations (UN), places Panama among the top 40, a classification that for the first time includes a Latin American country in the top 10. The World Happiness Report 2026 measures subjective well-being using the life satisfaction scale, derived from surveys in over 150 countries. It is worth remembering that the results are combined with socio-economic and governance indicators to reflect both personal and contextual factors of well-being. Panama ranked 41st in 2025, according to the report, and its highest rank was 15th in 2012. Number 1 is the happiest country, and 140 is the country with the lowest level of happiness.
