How people rate their own lives on a scale from 0 to 10, tracked annually from 2011 to 2025.
Average response to the Cantril ladder question, which asks people to rate their present life on a scale from 0, the worst possible life, to 10, the best possible. Roughly 1,000 respondents per country each year, from the Gallup World Poll. Source: World Happiness Report, via Our World in Data. Self-reported life evaluation captures something different from income or health alone, which is why it is used as a complement to GDP rather than a substitute for it.
Respondents are asked to imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top represents the best possible life for them, the bottom the worst possible. They are asked which step they personally feel they stand on at present.
Roughly a thousand people are surveyed in each country each year through the Gallup World Poll. The figures shown here are three-year rolling averages, which reduces the noise inherent in samples of that size.
The question asks for an evaluation of life as a whole, not a report of current mood. That distinction matters: it is a considered judgement rather than an emotional state, and it correlates differently with income, health, and social conditions than momentary happiness does.
Life evaluation rises with income, but not proportionally, and the relationship weakens substantially at higher levels. Countries at similar income levels can differ by more than a full ladder point.
The World Happiness Report attributes most of the variation between countries to six factors: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. Social support and freedom carry more weight than their absence from most policy discussions would suggest.
This is why the measure is used as a complement to GDP rather than a replacement for it. It captures something real that economic indicators miss, while remaining a single self-reported number with all the limitations that implies.
Cross-country comparison involves cultural assumptions. People in different societies may use the scale differently, and translation of the question is not perfectly neutral. Differences of a tenth of a point should not be treated as meaningful.
Trajectory is more reliable than level. A country’s movement over time is measured consistently, whatever its baseline. Use the year buttons to see direction.
Sample sizes are small. A thousand respondents per country gives a confidence interval wide enough that adjacent ranks are often statistically indistinguishable.
Data from the World Happiness Report via Our World in Data.