Mapping Happiness Levels Across The Americas

Happiness rankings in the Americas have seen notable shifts, with some smaller nations climbing while major economies have experienced steady declines.

Despite these changes, the region maintains a relatively high overall happiness level. Across North, Central, and South America, average scores generally range from 5.7 to 7.3.

This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, showcases the findings for countries in North, Central, and South America from the 2025 World Happiness Report, an annual publication that measures global contentment based on life evaluations, social support, freedom of choice, GDP per capita, and additional indicators of well-being. The data is drawn from the Gallup World Poll and various supplementary sources.

Each nation’s score in the World Happiness Report reflects an average of life evaluations over a three-year span (2022–2024 for this edition), ranking countries from highest to lowest.

Where does this data come from?

Source: The World Happiness Report which leverages data from the Gallup World Poll.

Methodology: The World Happiness Report derives its rankings from Gallup World Poll data, surveying approximately 1,000 people per country per year across 140+ countries. The total sample size typically exceeds 140,000 respondents annually. The rankings are based on three-year averages, from 2022 to 2024. Respondents evaluate their lives using the Cantril Ladder, a 0-to-10 scale. The rankings are based on six key factors: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity (measured by charitable acts), and perceptions of corruption. In addition to life evaluations, the report examines emotional well-being through positive and negative affect indicators, such as laughter, worry, and sadness. The 2025 edition also emphasizes social trust and benevolence, analyzing behaviors like sharing meals, helping strangers, and returning lost wallets to assess how caring and community engagement contribute to happiness.

Criticisms: Critics of the World Happiness Report point out that survey questions measure satisfaction with socioeconomic conditions as opposed to individual emotional happiness. As well, there are myriad cultural differences around the world that influence how people think about happiness and life satisfaction. Finally, there can be big differences in life satisfaction between groups within a country, which are averaged out even in a nationally representative group. The report does acknowledge inequality as a factor by measuring the “gap” between the most and least happy halves of each country.

The Most and Least Happy Countries in the Americas

Below, we show the happiness scores of countries in North, Central, and South America from the World Happiness Report 2025.

Costa Rica saw one of the most significant jumps in rankings this year, rising from #12 to #6–the highest ranking ever for a Latin American country and highest ranking non-European country in this year’s report.

The country’s “Pura Vida” lifestyle–meaning “pure life,” a philosophy centered on gratitude and enjoying the simple things in life–contributes to its relaxed pace of life and overall higher happiness levels.

In South America, Uruguay retained its title as the happiest country in the region. Known for its strong social welfare programs, political stability, and high quality of life, the small coastal nation has consistently ranked as the happiest in South America since 2020.

Both Uruguay and Costa Rica are also among the Latin America with the highest GDP per capita.

Venezuela, ranked #82 this year, remains the least happy country in South America amid ongoing economic crisis, political turmoil, and large-scale emigration.

The economic crisis in Venezuela has significantly contributed to a rise of organized crime, including human smuggling and trafficking, particularly along the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Also of note is the U.S., which has seen a steady decline in its happiness ranking over the years, dropping from 11th in 2011 to 24th in 2025, its lowest-ever spot. In 2024, the U.S. dropped out of the world’s 20 happiest countries for the first time since the report began 12 years ago.

To compare country happiness rankings from a different region, check out this graphic that visualizes the happiness levels across East Asia and Oceania.