While their political systems may not be free, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have the happiest citizens in Eurasia, according to a newly released survey. In contrast, happiness in the Caucasus appears to be more elusive.
The World Happiness Report 2025 evaluated the moods of citizens in 147 countries globally, as seen through a prism of “caring and sharing,” The Caspian Post reports citing Eurasianet.
The survey based its rankings on a variety of factors, including tangible expressions of “caring behavior,” such as benevolence and charity. The survey also looked at such factors as family dynamics, social connectivity and subjective well-being. Benevolence was measured by such actions as donating, volunteering, and helping strangers. Family dynamics and connectivity were evaluated by sharing meals and other bonding activities, while subjective well-being tried to gauge life satisfaction and levels of trust in others.
“When society is more benevolent, the people who benefit most are those who are least happy. As a result, happiness is more equally distributed in countries with higher levels of expected benevolence,” the study found. “The degree of benevolence in a country also has a profound impact on its politics. Populism is largely due to unhappiness. But whether populists are on the left or the right depends on trust. People who trust others veer to the left, those who do not veer to the right.”
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan achieved the highest overall rankings among Eurasian states included in the survey, coming in at 43rd and 53rd respectively out of 147 countries. Both scored comparatively well in the benevolence category, even though they both ranked near the bottom of the table in the sub-category of volunteering.
The survey noted that in Central and Eastern Europe, “regional differences may represent cultural variations that shape norms for caring for others,” adding that “an informal benevolent act, such as helping strangers, appears to be more common than other formal acts of benevolence such as donating and volunteering.”
But there are exceptions. For example, Tajikistan, which ranked 90th overall in the happiness table, was deemed to have the fourth highest rate of volunteering of all the countries surveyed. Kyrgyzstan ranked 75th in the survey, which did not include Turkmenistan. Russia came in 66th.
Happiness is not necessarily tied to income level, the survey confirms. The Caucasus as a region is wealthier in terms of per capita GDP than Central Asia, except for Kazakhstan. But citizens of all three Caucasus states tend to be unhappier than those in Central Asia.
Armenia was the highest-ranked Caucasus state in the survey at 87th, just three spots ahead of Tajikistan, the lowest ranked Central Asian state. Georgia - which just a few years ago seemed on a trajectory toward European Union membership, but which has been buffeted by political upheaval over the past year - ranked 91st. Azerbaijan, the richest state in the Caucasus, is the poorest in terms of citizen contentment, coming in at 106th.
The happiest nations in the world, according to the survey, are found in Nordic states, with Finland, Denmark and Iceland top-ranked in that order.
The survey established a clear connection between happiness and voting patterns in democratic societies.
“Subjective experiences like life satisfaction and trust play a much greater role in shaping values and voting behavior than traditional ideologies or class struggle,” the survey states. “In Europe and the United States, the decline in happiness and social trust explains a large share of the rise in political polarization and votes against ‘the system.’”
