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TORONTO — Canada’s happiness ranking slipped again last year, continuing a decade-long trend that’s seen the country plummet from the 5th happiest in the world in 2014 to 25th in 2026.
The annual World Happiness Report from the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford looked at how social media use might be affecting happiness on a population level, and found in some cases it was having an impact.
“There’s probably no simple explanation as to why Canadians’ view of happiness has been dropping. What this report suggests is that social media could be one part of this puzzle, but it doesn’t seem like it’s the full picture,” said Felix Cheung, a happiness researcher at the University of Toronto, who reviewed two chapters in the report but did not write it.
Between 2023 and 2025, the timeframe the researchers used for this report, Canadians’ life evaluations averaged at 6.741 out of 10. In Finland, the happiest country in the world for nine years running, the average was 7.764.
Last year, Canada ranked 18th happiest in the world, with an average rating of 6.803.
While this year’s report focuses on social media’s affect on happiness, it notes that Canada didn’t collect data on internet activity and life satisfaction.
In other countries, the report says, “life satisfaction is highest at low rates of social media use and lower at higher rates of use.”
The report divides internet use into two categories. It says communications, news, learning and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction, while social media, gaming and “browsing for fun” are linked to lower life evaluations.
Cheung said he believes happiness is more complex than simply saying that screens are bad and everything else is good.
“The bigger picture idea here is to think of how we can use our time for a better life,” he said. “Sometimes I’m worried about the complete focus on social media. One way to think about this problem is that we all have 24 hours. When we’re spending more time on screens, it means that we’re spending less time on some other things.”
He said it’s not as easy as just preventing kids from accessing screens; we need to make sure the offline world is engaging and satisfying, too.
Cheung also said it’s worth noting that 25th in the world isn’t all that bad, given that the report ranks 136 countries.
“We should also reflect on what we’re doing right instead of simply focusing on the negative,” he said, noting that among the six different determinants listed in the report, Canada ranks quite high on social support and generosity.
“It means that we’re a kind and supportive country,” he said. “And if we want to reverse this happiness decline, we can lean into existing strengths that we already have.”
As in previous years, nations in or near zones of major conflict remain at the bottom of the rankings with Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest country again, followed by Sierra Leone and Malawi in Africa.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2026.
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
