Taiwan becomes Asia’s happiest nation According to 2025 World Happiness Report

Taiwan has been ranked the happiest country in Asia, according to the 2025 World Happiness Report.

The island nation climbed from 31st place to 27th globally, surpassing Singapore and earning the distinction as the top-ranked Asian country in this year’s report. As the world continues to assess the factors contributing to well-being, the report highlights Taiwan's strong social connections and high levels of shared meals as key components of its success. The findings also show a rise in happiness rankings for other Asian nations, with Vietnam making significant strides, moving up nearly 40 spots over the past five years.

This year's report highlights the continued dominance of Nordic countries, with Finland maintaining its position at the top for the eighth consecutive year. Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands rounded out the top five. 

The World Happiness Report is compiled by a team of global well-being experts using data from the Gallup World Poll. This survey assesses individuals' life satisfaction over a three-year period from 2022 to 2024. The report also analyzes six key factors contributing to well-being: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption. 

While subjective life evaluations are the basis for rankings, these factors offer further insight into the global variations in happiness.

The happiest countries in Asia, according to the 2025 report, include: 

Taiwan

Singapore

Vietnam

Thailand

Japan

Philippines

South Korea

Malaysia

China

Mongolia

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, director of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University and editor of the report, noted that this year's findings emphasize the importance of social connections. “This year’s report pushes us to look beyond traditional determinants like health and wealth. It turns out that sharing meals and trusting others are even stronger predictors of well-being than expected,” De Neve said. 

The report revealed that sharing meals with others has a significant impact on life satisfaction, with the effect being comparable to that of income and employment status. Those who shared more meals with others reported significantly higher levels of happiness. Taiwanese people, in particular, were found to share a substantial number of meals, with 5.5 dinners and 4.7 lunches shared per week on average. This brings Taiwan to the 8th position globally in terms of meal-sharing frequency. In contrast, some East and South Asian countries reported lower levels of meal-sharing. 

The report notes that dining alone is increasing in nations like Japan and South Korea, partly due to the rise of single-person households and demographic aging. Variations in survey interpretations across regions might also play a role, as some respondents in East and South Asia may not consider household members as “someone you know.”

As De Neve pointed out, “In this era of social isolation and political polarization, we need to find ways to bring people around the table again — doing so is critical for our individual and collective well-being.” 

Vietnam also saw significant improvement in this year’s rankings. The country moved up from 54th place in 2024 to 46th this year, marking an impressive rise of nearly 40 spots since 2020, when it ranked 83rd. The 2025 World Happiness Report highlights the growing importance of social connections and community engagement in fostering long-term happiness.

By Naila Huseynova