Finland tops World Happiness Report for 7th straight year, U.S. drops out of top 20

March 20 (UPI) -- Finland remains the happiest country in the world for a seventh year straight, while the United States has dropped from the list of the top 20 happiest nations, according to The World Happiness Report, published by the University of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Center Wednesday.

"Rankings are based on a three-year average of each population's average assessment of their quality of life," the Wellbeing Research Center said in a press release Wednesday.

The report, which was released Wednesday to coincide with the U.N.'s International Day of Happiness, was compiled using data from the Gallup World Poll.

"Today's World Happiness Report attempts to bridge some of these gaps by offering insights into people's perceptions of life on Earth," said Gallup CEO Jon Clifton. "It offers more than just national rankings; it provides analytics and advice for evidence-based planning and policymaking."

Afghanistan is still the unhappiest country in the world, according to the report.

Serbia, which climbed 69 places to 37th, and Bulgaria, which climbed 63 places to 81st, saw the largest increases in happiness since 2013.

"The broad country coverage and annual surveys of the Gallup World Poll provide an unmatched source of data about the quality of lives all over the globe," said World Happiness Report Editor Professor John Helliwell of the University of British Columbia.

The report reveals that people born after 1980 are unhappier on average than people born before 1965.

"There is a great variety among countries in the relative happiness of the younger, older, and in-between populations," said Helliwell.

According to the report, the drop in rank for the United States to 23rd place, is "driven by a large drop in the well-being of Americans under 30."

The report also observes a significant drop in the well-being of between the ages of 15 and 25 in Western Europe, North America, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

"Globally, young people aged 15-24 still report higher life satisfaction than older adults," the Center said in its report. "This gap is narrowing in Western Europe and recently revered in North America due to falling life satisfaction among the young."