World Happiness Report 2025
Wellbeing Research Centre (Oxford), Gallup, and UN SDSN · Published 20 March 2025
Latest edition: 20 March 2025 · Next expected: March 2027
This ranking is questionable. A single survey question carries the word happiness, and the sample cannot be audited.
What the report claims
The World Happiness Report ranks countries on the Gallup World Poll Cantril ladder, a single survey question that asks people to rate their life on a scale of 0 to 10. The headline number is the three-year average of that answer, plus six explanatory variables (GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and perceptions of corruption) that model why countries land where they do. India ranks 118th of 147, up from 126th in 2024, but below Pakistan (109), Ukraine (111), and Palestine (108). The ladder is collected by Gallup in India with published confidence intervals.
The Credibility Score, dimension by dimension
- Methodology transparency / replicability
- 9 / 20
- Source verifiability + measurement integrity
- 8 / 25
- Internal consistency of India’s place
- 11 / 20
- Construct validity / India coverage
- 5 / 10
- Independence and funding
- 7 / 20
- Accountability (corrections, versioning)
- 2 / 5
Funding and independence: The report is produced by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, under named academic editors. Recent editions have named private foundation and corporate philanthropic supporters, including the Ernesto Illy Foundation, but amounts and a complete 2025 sponsor schedule are not established in the public record. The project states a mission to bring wellbeing into public policy, and a formal corrections ledger is limited.
Sources: Wellbeing Research Centre (Oxford), Gallup, and UN SDSN, World Happiness Report 2025
Updated 9 November 2026