Argentina is happier!

Data from the recently-released World Happiness Report shows Argentina ranks 42 among 147 countries in the happiness of its residents. That ranking is based on an average of data collected from 2022 to 2024. It is an increase from the ranking of 48 in 2024, which was based on data collected from 2021 to 2023.

Yet the country is far from being as happy as it was in 2017, when it was ranked the 24th happiest country in the world.

The first World Happiness Report was published in 2012, a year after the United Nations General Assembly asked member countries to measure the happiness of their people to help it in the creation of public policies. The rankings are based on an analysis of six categories of polling data from the Gallup World Poll. They include gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make one’s own life choices, generosity of the general population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption.

Nordic countries have traditionally ranked highest, with Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden at the top of the list this year. (Finland has ranked No. 1 since 2017.) In its rankings this year of South American countries, Uruguay is first, with a worldwide ranking of 28. It is followed by Brazil (36), Argentina (42), Chile (45), Paraguay (54), Columbia (61), Ecuador (62), Peru (65), Bolivia (74), and Venezuela (82). Suriname and Guyana are not included because of a lack of survey data.

Argentines have friends, indeed

“Social support” is where Argentina ranks highest among the categories considered in creating the world ranking. That ranking (21) is based on answers to the Gallup World Poll question: “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?” “Freedom to make your own life choices” is the second-highest category for Argentina, with a rank of 47. That is based on answers to the question: “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” Argentina ranks 52 in the “Gross Domestic Product per capita” ranking, with the GDP calculated as US$25,984. 

“Perceptions of corruption” is a category that has a negative impact on Argentina’s world ranking, at 75. That figure is based on answers to the questions: “Is corruption widespread throughout the government or not?” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses or not?” “Generosity” is the lowest ranking, at 112, based on answers to the question: “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?”

The 2025 report doesn’t include an updated “healthy life expectancy” ranking, noting that it is relying on World Health Organization data from 2021. WHO has reported that life expectancy in Argentina as of 2021 averaged 74.6 years, with 77.6 for women and 71.6 for men. That is a decline from 77 years in 2019, attributed mostly to COVID-19. 

The report also includes rankings of countries based on six measures of “benevolence,” as determined by both the Gallup World Poll and the World Risk Poll (2019), which is conducted by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation for UNESCO. Those rankings include responses to questions as to whether in the past month the resident of a country donated to someone, volunteered to help someone, or helped a stranger. 

Would your neighbors return your wallet?

The poll also asks those surveyed whether, if they lost their wallet, it would be likely to be returned if found by a neighbor, a police officer, or a stranger. Countries that have free public healthcare and other social services typically rank lower among those whose residents report donating or volunteering or helping a stranger. That’s because public assistance is more likely to be available.

Argentina ranks 105 among those whose residents have donated, 94 among those who have volunteered, and 52 among those who have helped a stranger. However, it ranks at a relatively low 128 among those who would expect the police to return a lost wallet. It ranks 88 among those who would expect a neighbor to return the wallet, and 72 among those who would expect a stranger to do that. 

The report states that Finland and other Nordic countries are “among the best places to lose your wallet … A lost wallet exposes an immediate need, and that call is indeed answered.”

Rise and fall

The World Happiness Report lists 2018 as the year of the “biggest fall” for Argentina. From that year, when it ranked 29 among all nations (a small decline from the rank of 24 in 2017) it fell to 47 in 2019, a year marked by economic turmoil. 

The report lists 2012 as Argentina’s “biggest climb,” the year that its ranking of 39 climbed to 29 in 2013. It is unclear from data in the World Happiness Report what was responsible for the increase in 2013, a year the country faced rising inflation and austerity measures imposed by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Argentina had maintained a relatively steady ranking from 29 in 2013, followed by 30 in 2015, 26 in 2016, and 24 in 2017. No report is available for 2014.

The organizations that produce the World Happiness Report every year include the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, the WellBeing Research Centre at Oxford University, and Gallup.