Happiness is a Universal pursuit, but its determinants and distribution vary widely across the globe. The World Happiness Report, published annually by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks countries based on how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.

This project explores “Global Happiness Trends from 2020 to 2024” using data from the World Happiness Report.It investigates not only “Which countries are the happiest”, but also “why” – by analyzing key contributing factors such as:

• GDP per capita

• Social Support

• Healthy life expectancy

• Freedom to make life choices

• Generosity

• Perceptions of corruption

My Goal is twofold:

• To highlight how happiness levels have shifted globally over five years.

• To uncover which factors contribute most strongly to national well being.

Through series of visualizations and insights, this data story reveals how economic, social, and political indicators shape global happiness – and why some nations consistently rank at the top while others lag behind.

Source : World Happiness Report [https://data.worldhappiness.report/map]

The Chart below shows the “average global happiness score” from 2020 to 2024.

I observed a dip in 2023 followed by a notable increase in 2024.

These changes may reflect recovery from global disruptions such as COVID-19 and economic challenges.

These two bar chart shows the top 10 countries by happiness score.

Countries like Finland remain at the top, indicating sustained quality of life.

Some countries move up or down, reflecting changes in social, economic, or political conditions.

This Chart shows the top 10 countries with the greatest increase and decrease in happiness score.

Positive change may reflect post-COVID recovery or reforms , while negative trends could point to instability or crisis.

Countries with strong upward momentum are potential case studies in resilience.

This correlation heatmap shows how each factor relates to the Happiness Score in 2024

Social support and GDP per capita are strongly correlated, suggesting material well-being and strong communities are key to happiness.

Trust and generosity are weaker but still positively associated.

These plots show how GDDP, Social Support , and Freedom relate to Happiness Score in 2024.

All three factors show positive associations with happiness.

Social support has the strongest and clearest relationship, while Freedom is more dispersed – suggesting context matters.

Some countries are notably happier or less happy than expected, highlighting that culture, governance, or inequality also play a role.

There is a clear positive linear relationship between GDP per capita and happiness Score – wealthier countries tend to be happier.

While GDP is generally a good predictor of happiness, some countries stand out:

• Costa Rica and Mexico are happier than expected, likely due to strong communities or well-being policies

• Singapore , Japan and the US have high GDP but moderate happiness, showing wealth alone isn’t enough.

• Afghanistan, Lebanon, Bangladesh and India all have low GDP and low happiness, aligning with global patterns of conflict, poverty, or institutional distrust.

These outliers highlight the importance of social support, trust, and culture context in determining well-being.

This analysis of the World Happiness Report (2020-2024) reveals that happiness is influenced by a complex interplay of economic, social, and political factors. While wealth plays a role, it is not the sole determinant of national well-being.

The strongest drivers of happiness across countries in 2024 were social support, freedom to make life choices, and GDP per capita.

The global average happiness score remained relatively stable over these five years, but some countries experienced significant shifts. The biggest gainers and decliners remind us that political instability, economic shocks, or good governance can rapidly influence well-being.

Enhancing happiness requires a holistic policy approach that invests in social trust, mental health,civic freedom, and inclusive governance not just economic growth.

Emotional security and a sense of community play a crucial role in shaping how people perceive their quality of life, often more than material wealth.

Ultimately, happiness is multidimensional. It thrives not just where wealth exists, but where people feel secure, free, connected and values.

World Happiness Report Dataset https://data.worldhappiness.report

The A-Z of Rcolorbrewer Palette
https://www.datanovia.com/en/blog/the-a-z-of-rcolorbrewer-palette/

Getting started with ggrepel : https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggrepel/vignettes/ggrepel.html

Faceting in ggplot2 with facet_wrap and facet_grid https://r-charts.com/ggplot2/facets/