India ranks 118th in World Happiness Report 2025, expert questions methodology

India has improved its position in the World Happiness Report 2025, climbing to 118th place among 147 countries, up from 126th last year. The report, released by the United Nations on Thursday to mark the International Day of Happiness, assesses countries based on social support, GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption.

While India's ranking showed progress, it still lags behind several conflict-affected nations such as Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Venezuela. Meanwhile, Finland retained its position as the world’s happiest country for the eighth consecutive year.

However, Professor Rajesh Pillania, a happiness researcher, said that India's ranking in the World Happiness Reports is not correct and claimed that India is much happier. He questioned the accuracy of India’s ranking in the report, citing issues in methodology such as subjectivity bias in the concept of happiness across cultures.

“Happiness is self-reported, making it prone to bias. The idea of happiness differs between collectivist and individualist societies,” he said.

Additionally, he argued that self-reported happiness may not be reliable due to memory bias and diverse socio-economic conditions. “Taking an average of individual evaluations might work for a smaller country which is also homogeneous, but for a diverse nation like India, where people come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and there is diversity, a national average might not be a good idea,” he explained.

He emphasised that relationships—a key determinant of happiness—remain strong in India. Citing the Harvard Study of Adult Development, he said, “The longest study on happiness found that relationships are one of the major reasons for happiness. As per my interaction and study, in India, relationships are still very strong. So I would like to believe that Indians are much happier than shown in the World Happiness report.”

Prof. Pillania also pointed out that spirituality and religion, which are very important for happiness, are strong in India.