BENGALURU: The recently released World Happiness Report 2025, which placed India at 118 out of 147 countries, has sparked widespread criticism from netizens, including prominent personalities. Many expressed disbelief over India ranking below Pakistan, Palestine and Ukraine, questioning the methodology used in the assessment.
Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar voiced his concern, emphasising that India’s ranking should be much higher.
“Having travelled extensively around the world, I feel India’s ranking deserves to be much higher. I disagree with India being placed so low, even below conflict zones. Happiness is not just about bonding; anger and frustration can also create bonds. But when it comes to the happiness index, I feel India is far, far better,” he said and added that on his travels he has observed that human values are much higher in India.
“Compassion, the way people welcome guests and how they share their resources is incredible. If something happens to a family, the entire village comes together to help. This kind of social bonding is very strong,” he said, adding there are issues in the country, but in the last decade, there has been significant improvement.
He also argued that poverty does not necessarily equate to unhappines, citing how even in India’s slums, people exhibit joy and resilience.
The World Happiness Report 2025, prepared by University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in collaboration with Gallup and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, faced backlash across social media.
Netizens questioned the credibility of the index. A user identified as GK pointed out on X: “I wonder what they measure. The suicide rate in Finland is 15.1 per 100k, which is higher than India at 13.4 per 100k. I doubt if happy people love to kill themselves!?”
Another post from Temple Tales read: “Everyone knows that India is a land of happiness; every day here is a festival.”
A post by Ravi Tiwari suggested reading the Happiness Index from bottom to top for a more accurate picture. Another handle listed countries using the highest number of antidepressant pills per 1,000 people, and India was not in the list at all.