Experts from across the globe will share examples of national-level and sector-specific policies that aim to promote happiness, examining the impact they have had.
A team of leading economists, psychologists, and policy experts will collaborate on World Happiness Report 2027, to be released in March next year.
In addition to the ranking of the world’s happiest countries, every World Happiness Report includes detailed analysis on a chosen topic.
In 2027, the report will focus on public policy, examining how government spending can promote happiness, and why that should be the central aim for policymakers worldwide. With contributions from Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas, the report will investigate what works, what doesn’t, and where the greatest opportunities lie.
Richard Layard, founder-director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, and a founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said:
"Over two hundred years ago, the great philosophers of the Enlightenment proposed that government policy should target wellbeing. Today, the science of wellbeing makes that possible.
World Happiness Report 2027 will show how that science is being used around the world and illustrate some policy initiatives it supports and some it does not.”
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Oxford and Director of the Wellbeing Research Centre, which publishes the World Happiness Report, said:
"We are thrilled to be able to bring together a stellar set of author teams who will dig into how populations can look to practically improve good life years at both a country level, as well as through specific policies that look to raise population wellbeing.
This will mark a special moment in the history of the World Happiness Report as we go beyond the global trends in wellbeing and what might explain them, to focus on operationalising wellbeing and how to put it at the heart of policy-making.”
World Happiness Report 2027 will feature eight chapters, representing a range of perspectives from around the world:
Global happiness and public policy
- John F. Helliwell
Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia - Lara B. Aknin
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University - Haifang Huang
Department of Economics, University of Alberta - Shun Wang
International Business School Suzhou, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Value for money: how to improve wellbeing and reduce misery
- Richard Layard
Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics and Political Science - Other authors to be confirmed
Wellbeing transformation in government policymaking: a natural language analysis of Japan’s policy system
- Susumu Nagayama
Graduate School of Social Data Science, Hitotsubashi University - Other authors to be confirmed
From wellbeing budgets to wellbeing outcomes: lessons from New Zealand
- Arthur Grimes
Victoria University of Wellington and Motu Research - Conal Smith
Kōtātā Insight and Auckland University of Technology - Stephanié Rossouw
Auckland University of Technology - Talita Greyling
University of Johannesburg
Pura Vida without a manual: the paradox of a high-wellbeing Costa Rica through indirect public policies
- Franklin Castro
Founder and CEO, Yourney - Alejandro Ramírez
Researcher
Making wellbeing a measurable objective of education policy: lessons from Uganda’s school-based mental health reform
- Rebecca Namuli
StrongMinds - Charlotte Oloya
StrongMinds - Vincent Mujune
StrongMinds - Saidi Nsamba
Ministry of Education and Sports, Republic of Uganda - Roscoe Kasujja
School of Psychology, Makerere University - Teddy Wandera Chimmulwa
UNESCO Uganda
Time use, public policy, and wellbeing: evidence from South Korea
- Joon Han
Department of Sociology, Yonsei University - Jun Koo
Department of Public Administration, Korea University - Eunkook M. Suh
Department of Psychology, Yonsei University
Flourishing is contagious: evidence that cultivating wellbeing in one person lifts the wellbeing and performance of others
- Richard J. Davidson
Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison - Matthew J. Hirshberg
Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chapter titles may be subject to change ahead of publication of World Happiness Report 2027.
About the World Happiness Report
The World Happiness Report is a partnership of Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and the WHR’s Editorial Board. The report is produced under the editorial control of the WHR Editorial Board.
Powered by data from the Gallup World Poll, the World Happiness Report is the world’s foremost publication on global happiness: an annual publication which provides valuable, interdisciplinary insights into the wellbeing and happiness of people across the globe.
In addition to the rankings of the world’s ‘happiest’ countries, the report includes curated submissions from experts at the forefront of wellbeing science.
For more information visit worldhappiness.report.