The Science of Happiness in 2025: What Global Data Reveals
Posted on March 31, 2025 by Tatiana Serikova, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Oxford's 2025 Happiness Report links joy to kindness, trust, social ties, and shared meals—benevolence matters more than we think.
The University of Oxford recently released their yearly World Happiness Report. It’s based on a global survey covering 147 countries, with each year’s results averaged over the last 3 years to smooth out impact of events.
The report assesses the impact of key factors on happiness using regression analysis, sometimes comparing it to experimental data. The main drivers of happiness remain quite consistent: GDP per capita, social support, freedom to make life choices, and healthy life expectancy — usually in that order, though it varies by country.
Each year, the research highlights a new topic. In 2025, it focused on benevolence — what can be a big part of social support. It is also a nice shift from individualistic perception of happiness.
So here are some highlights from this year report:
Benevolence is strongly linked to happiness
For both givers and receivers. Volunteering, donating, or even small acts like helping a stranger are associated with higher life satisfaction. The biggest boost comes when the act is voluntary, motivated by helping others, and shows visible impact.
We underestimate how kind others really are
In wallet-drop experiments, wallets were returned far more often than people expected. In surveys, people consistently rated themselves as more likely to perform kind acts than others. It’s important because expecting others to be kind is a stronger predictor of happiness than experiencing harm. And then we are robbing ourselves of happiness.
Social connection is crucial
Dining with others, living with family (especially in households of 4–5 people), and having close social support all strongly correlate with happiness. This matters even more as loneliness rises, particularly among young adults.
One of the most interesting graphs is how life satisfaction evaluation increases with number of meals shared with others per week.
Trust shapes not just wellbeing—but politics
People with low interpersonal trust tend to lean toward right-wing populism, while high-trust individuals lean left. Regardless of ideology, dissatisfaction with life is a key driver of anti-system voting.
Mental health initiatives yield high wellbeing returns
Even in lower-income countries. And additional connection with kindness—countries with more volunteering, donating, and helping strangers have lower suicide/substance abuse deaths.
This is the report. One of the most interesting connections there is the link of sharing a meal with positive emotions and live satisfaction. So, how often do you eat with others?
