Ireland is the 13th happiest country trailing Finland who are in first place for the fifth year in a row according to the latest UN sponsored World Happiness index.
Northern Europeans once again dominated the top spots -- with the Danes second to the Finns, followed by the Icelandic, the Swiss and the Dutch.
The United States rose three places to 16th, one ahead of Britain. France climbed to 20th, its highest ranking yet.
This year the authors included data from social media to compare people's emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. They found "strong increases in anxiety and sadness" in 18 countries but a fall in feelings of anger.
The World Happiness Report, now in its 10th year, is based on people's own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data.
It assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data over a three-year period.
Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia recorded the biggest boosts in wellbeing.
Lebanon, which is facing economic meltdown, fell to second from last on the index of 146 countries, just below Zimbabwe.
The index has ranked Afghanistan as the unhappiest, closely followed by Lebanon.
The latest list was compiled before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
