What's happened
The 2026 World Happiness Report reveals a significant decline in life satisfaction among under-25s in Western countries, especially in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, linked to heavy social media use. Finland remains the happiest nation for the ninth year, while Costa Rica rises to fourth place. The report highlights social media's harmful effects on youth mental health, particularly among teenage girls.
What's behind the headline?
Social Media's Role in Youth Wellbeing Decline
The report confirms that heavy social media use is a major factor driving the decline in life satisfaction among young people in Western countries. Platforms with algorithmic feeds and influencer-driven, visual content exacerbate social comparisons and mental health issues, especially for teenage girls. This aligns with growing evidence of social media as a 'dangerous consumer product' contributing to population-level increases in depression and anxiety.
Geographic and Cultural Nuances
Interestingly, the negative impact is concentrated in English-speaking and Western European countries, while youth wellbeing in regions like the Middle East and Latin America remains stable or improves despite heavy social media use. This suggests cultural, social, and economic contexts mediate social media's effects, with strong family and social ties in Latin America, exemplified by Costa Rica's rise in happiness rankings.
Policy and Societal Implications
The findings come amid increasing government efforts to regulate youth social media access, such as Australia's ban for under-16s and ongoing consultations in Europe. The report's data-driven approach strengthens calls for policy interventions targeting platform design and usage limits to mitigate harm.
Broader Impact and Future Outlook
While Nordic countries maintain top happiness rankings due to wealth equality, welfare systems, and health, the youth happiness crisis in the West signals urgent need for societal and technological reforms. The report will likely accelerate debates on social media regulation, mental health support, and the design of digital platforms to prioritize genuine social connection over addictive consumption.
What the papers say
Pauline Rouquette of France 24 highlights the report's stark warning that "social media is taking a significant toll on the happiness of young people in the West," citing "overwhelming evidence of severe and widespread" harms like cyberbullying and depression. The Independent emphasizes the drop in life satisfaction among under-25s in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, noting that "young people who use social media for less than one hour per day report the highest levels of well-being," quoting Jan-Emmanuel De Neve on the need to "put the 'social' back into social media." The Independent also details Costa Rica's rise to fourth place, attributing it to "strong family ties" and social capital.
The Independent's earlier coverage underscores the platforms' "algorithmic" design as "dangerous consumer products," linking them to mental illness increases, while Al Jazeera's John Power stresses that heavy social media use "provides an important part of the explanation" for youth wellbeing declines in 15 Western countries. Reuters quotes De Neve describing algorithmically pushed content as more harmful than platforms focused on communication, and Gallup's Julie Ray connects lower youth wellbeing in English-speaking countries to broader social support deficits.
Together, these sources provide a comprehensive view of the report's findings, the geographic disparities in social media's impact, and the growing policy responses worldwide.
How we got here
The World Happiness Report, published annually by the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the UN, ranks countries by life satisfaction based on surveys of around 100,000 people globally. It assesses factors like social support, GDP, health, freedom, generosity, and corruption. Recent editions have focused on youth wellbeing and the impact of social media.
Go deeper
- How does social media use affect youth happiness differently across regions?
- What policies are governments considering to address social media's impact on young people?
- Why is Costa Rica's happiness ranking improving so significantly?
Common question
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How Does Social Media Impact Youth Mental Health?
Recent reports highlight a worrying link between social media use and unhappiness among young people. Countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are seeing significant declines in youth wellbeing, especially among teenagers. But what exactly is happening, and what can parents and teens do about it? Below, we explore the key questions about social media's effect on youth mental health and what steps can be taken to protect young minds.
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How Does Social Media Impact Youth Mental Health?
Recent reports highlight a worrying link between social media use and declining happiness among young people. Countries like the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are seeing significant drops in youth wellbeing, especially among teenage girls. But what exactly is causing this trend, and what can parents and schools do to help? Below, we explore the key questions about social media's effect on youth mental health and what steps can be taken to protect young minds.
More on these topics
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, Norway to the north, and is defined by the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, and the Gulf of Finland of the
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The World Happiness Report is a publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It contains articles and rankings of national happiness, based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with var
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Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland.
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Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose mainland territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula; Mainland Norway and the remote island of Jan Mayen as well as the archi
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Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Isla
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, with a population of 364,134 and an area of 103,000 km², making it the most sparsely populated country in Europe. The capital and largest city is Reykjavík.
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund Strait.
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. Denmark proper, which is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being
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Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a Belgian economist and professor at the University of Oxford where he directs the Wellbeing Research Centre. De Neve is also the KSI Fellow and Vice-Principal of Harris Manchester College.
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The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in continuous operation
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Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands.
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Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, informally Salone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea to the northeast.
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Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central and South Asia.
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New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It comprises two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands, covering a total area of 268,021 square kilometres.
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Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest c
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The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lies west across the Mediterranean Sea.
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Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique.
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Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 square kilometres.
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Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Western Hemisphere where Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and French are predominantly spoken.