Nevertheless, the World Happiness Report 2026, released on the eve of the World Happiness Day, shows that India's happiness score has been even less than in 2014, while its rank improved only one place up, that too because some other country performed worse in happiness index.

When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India in 2014, who had promised "achchhe din" (good days), that has never come, the World Happiness Report 2014 hand ranked the country at 117th with a happiness score of 4.565. Now World Happiness Report 2026, has ranked India at 116, with a worse happiness score of 4.536, that is a loss or 0.029 points in the scale of 0-10. It means people of India have become less happy than in 2014. It is despite all sorts of claim by PM Narendra Modi led government regarding the development and well-being of the people of India. It is also worth mentioning that the World Happiness Report 2025 have ranked India 118th in the world.

The World Happiness Report 2026 has assessed the level of happiness in 147 countries of the world. It is very disheartening that on the one hand Modi government have been boasting that India have become 4th largest economy of the world, is the fastest growing country, and is likely to become the 3rd largest economy of the world, and on the other the country ranks 116th among the most unhappy countries of the world.

Among India's neighbours, Afghanistan (147th), Sri Lanka (134th), Myanmar (129th), Bangladesh (127th) performed worse than India. Other neighbouring countries performed better with Pakistan ranked 104th, Nepal ranked 99th, and China ranked 65th. Bhutan was not ranked. India's maritime neighbour the Maldives was also not assessed, but the countries near the Andaman and Nicobar islands were ranked, Indonesia 87th, Thailand 52nd, and Malaysia 71st. Modi government's boasting has thus nor real value as far as happiness of the people under his regime is concerned.

It is also worth noting that happiness is estimated on eight criteria - GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, perceptions of corruption, dystopia (1.16) plus residual, and 95 per cent confidence intervals. It goes without saying that India has been lagging behind in several parameters.

Afghanistan has been ranked unhappiest country of the world and nine other countries from the bottom in happiness are Sierra Leone, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Yemen, Lebanon, DR Congo, Egypt, and Tanzania. The ten happiest counties of the world from top are Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

The theme of the World Happiness Report 2026 is Happiness and Social Media, which marks the rise of the Social Media and its impact on Happiness. Heavy users of social media are at risk, the report underlines.

Negative emotions are becoming more common in all global regions. They are less frequent for the young, except for NANZ region which includes the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where the increases, relative to other regions, were in sadness. Worry rose more broadly for the young, while the frequency of anger fell everywhere, for young and old alike.

Positive emotions continue to be twice as frequent as negative emotions. In all regions, they are higher for those born recently than for their elders, except for NANZ, where that gap has closed in recent years.

Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.

All internet activities are associated with lower life satisfaction at very high rates of use, especially for girls and for those in the UK and Ireland.

Data from Latin America reveal that the type of platform is crucial. Platforms designed to facilitate social connections show a clear positive association with happiness, whereas those driven by algorithmically curated content tend to demonstrate a negative association at high rates of use.

The prevalence and use patterns for social media are similar in all countries, but their links to life evaluations are stronger in English-speaking countries and Western Europe. These differences do not account for the large drops in youth wellbeing in these countries, however. Much, no doubt, depends on how social media is used and the broader social and economic context.

The report says that social media is harming adolescents at a scale large enough to cause changes at the population level. Is social media use reasonably safe for children and adolescents? The report says the answer in no.

A reasonable conclusion is that if social media platforms did not exist, many users would be better off, the report claimed.

The report finds problematic social media use (PSMU) in 43 countries it examined. It finds its relationship with lower wellbeing stronger among adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than among their higher status peers. Between 2018 and 2022, the negative association between PSMU and adolescent wellbeing intensified. This increase occurred across all socioeconomic groups and in most of the regions examined.

The estimated relationship between internet use and wellbeing varies sharply across generations, genders, and regions. It is strongly negative for Gen Z, moderately negative for Millennials, near zero for Gen X, and slightly positive for Baby Boomers. The generational gradient reflects both greater increases in internet use among younger cohorts (exposure) and more negative estimated coefficients for those same cohorts (susceptibility).

The social and emotional foundations of wellbeing have deteriorated most for younger Europeans, especially in Western Europe. Declines in interpersonal trust, institutional trust, perceived social activity, and social meeting frequency are largest for Gen Z and Millennial women. In contrast, older cohorts show more resilience, supported by rising attachment to country and, in many Central and Eastern European countries, improved feelings of safety.

Perceived social activity ("compared to others your age") has fallen everywhere and is among the strongest predictors of wellbeing losses.

Internet use is associated with several drivers of wellbeing, including trust, perceived social activity, and social connection. Interaction terms reveal that internet use can be positive for individuals with high interpersonal trust or strong attachments to their countries.

Social media use in the Middle East and North Africa is among the highest in the world, although considerable differences appear among countries. Heavy use is more common than in other regions: between 20% and 40%of users reported more than five hours of use in 2023-2024.

On average, heavy social media use (more than five hours per day) is associated with lower wellbeing. Heavy users are significantly more likely to report higher stress and depressive symptoms, and believe they are worse off than their parents, compared with non- or moderate users. (IPA Service)

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