Uzbekistan has retained its 53rd position in the World Happiness Report 2026, matching last year's result. According to the report, the country's life satisfaction score is 6.283 out of 10. The report, traditionally released ahead of the International Day of Happiness (March 20), was prepared by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford in collaboration with the Gallup Institute and the United Nations.
The ranking methodology is based on surveys of approximately 100,000 people across 140 countries and territories. Respondents evaluate their lives using the Cantril Ladder test, where 10 represents the best possible life and 0 the worst. Additionally, analysts consider objective factors such as GDP per capita, levels of personal freedom, perceptions of corruption, and life expectancy.
Among CIS countries, Kazakhstan remains the leader, securing 33rd place and climbing 10 positions compared to last year. Other regional states ranked as follows: Kyrgyzstan at 66th, Moldova at 77th, and Russia at 79th. Tajikistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan placed 88th, 89th, and 102nd, respectively.
Finland continues to hold the top spot globally for the ninth consecutive year. The top five also include Iceland, Denmark, Costa Rica, and Sweden. The top ten is rounded out by Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. At the opposite end of the list, Afghanistan remains the least happy country, ranking 147th. The bottom positions are occupied by Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Sierra Leone.
The new report pays special attention to the impact of digital technologies on youth well-being. Researchers found that internet activity has an ambiguous effect on happiness levels: using the web for learning, communication, and content creation correlates with higher life satisfaction, whereas aimless scrolling through social media and gaming often leads to decreased self-assessed well-being.
The report's overall conclusions indicate that positive emotions still occur twice as frequently as negative ones worldwide, but the level of negative experiences is gradually increasing across all regions. Notably, residents of most industrialized Western countries now feel less happy than during the 2005–2010 period, with 15 of these countries recording a significant decline in happiness levels.
It is worth recalling that the international human rights organization Freedom House recently published its annual global report, "Freedom in the World 2026." According to the study, Uzbekistan was again categorized as a "not free" country. Experts rated the development level of democratic institutions in the republic at just 12 out of 100 points, repeating last year's result.
Source: podrobno.uz