Foreigners twice as friendly as we think, studying suggests

Foreigners are about twice as friendly as people think, a study that looks at happiness all over the world suggests.

This year’s World Happiness Report – released on Thursday – measured trust in strangers by deliberately losing portfolios, seeing how much were sent back and that comparing how many people thought that it would be returned.

The speed of portfolios was almost twice as high as the predicted people and the study, who collected evidence from all over the world, thought that belief in the friendliness of others was more closely linked to happiness than previously thought.

The report ranked Finland as the world’s happiest country for the eighth year in a row, with the US and the UK slid on the list.

John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia and a founding editor of the report, said that the data from the portfolio experiment showed that “people are much happier that they think people are about to each other”.

He added that the research showed that people “were too pessimistic everywhere”, with portfolios that are returned much more often than predicted.

The 13th annual World Happiness Report, released on the occasion of the UN International Day, ranks the happiest countries in the world by asking people to evaluate their lives.

Finland again took a top spot with an average score of 7.736 out of 10, while Costa Rica and Mexico have arrived the top 10 for the first time.

Both the UK and the US slipped the list to 23rd and 24th respectively – the lowest position ever for the latter.

The study, published by the Wellbeing Research Center of the University of Oxford, asked people to judge their own lives on a scale of 0-10 – zero as the worst possible life and 10 the best possible life.

Land ranking is based on a three -year average of those scores. The top 10 are:

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Sweden

5. The Netherlands

6. Costa Rica

7. Norway

8. Israel

9. Luxembourg

10. Mexico

The World Happiness Report 2025 has also found:

• decreasing happiness and social confidence in the US and parts of Europe combined to explain the rise and direction of political polarization;
• Sharing meals with others was strongly connected to well -being around the world;
• The size of the household was closely connected to happiness, with four to five people living together who enjoy the highest levels of happiness in Mexico and Europe

Jeffrey D. Sachs, president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said that the findings again confirmed “Happiness is rooted in trust, kindness and social connection”.

“It is up to us as virtuous individuals and citizens to translate this vital truth into positive action, thereby promoting peace, politeness and well -being in communities worldwide,” he said.

Jan -Emmanuel De Neve, director of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Center, added: “In this era of social isolation and political polarization we must find ways to bring people around the table again – this is of crucial importance for our individual and collective well -being.”