For the past 12 years, Gallup’s World Happiness Report has ranked the happiest countries in the world — but this year, the U.S. hit a historic low.
In fact, we didn’t even make the top 20.
The survey polls 1,000 residents in each country the world over on their satisfaction about how their country handles everything from policies to crime to health care.
The list traditionally sees countries like Finland and Denmark trading back and forth year to year for the enviable pole position — this year, for the fourth in a row, it’s Finland — but the United States has never ranked 23rd.
Yet there we are, just above Germany (#24) and Mexico (#25).
For the record, Denmark ranked #2; Iceland was #3; Sweden ranked #4; and Israel rounded out the top five.
Once again, Afghanistan was ranked the least happy, at #143.
The States ranked #19 in 2021 — even during the lockdown year — but bumped up to #16 in 2022, then #15 in 2023, according to Axios.
The Gallup survey data notes that Americans — particularly those under 30 — expressed “low levels of trust” in their politicians and the political system, and have pressing concerns about political violence.
There’s also a growing pandemic of loneliness affecting younger Americans that started in 2020 and never improved, according to the data.
Survey questions, methodology and results have not been verified or endorsed by ABC News or The Walt Disney Company.