US happiness sinks as more Americans eat alone: survey

HELSINKI: The United States fell to its lowest happiness ranking ever partly due to a rise in the number of Americans eating their meals alone, an annual UN-sponsored report said on Thursday.

Finland ranked as the world´s happiest country for the eighth straight year in the World Happiness Report, with locals and experts thanking its grand lakes and strong welfare system for boosting its mood.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, once again ranked as the unhappiest country in the world. The United States fell to 24th place, its lowest score since the report was first published in 2012, when it recorded its highest showing at number 11.

“The number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53 percent over the past two decades,” the authors said, noting that sharing meals “is strongly linked with well-being”.

In 2023, roughly one in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, the report said. “The increasing number of people who eat alone is one reason for declining well-being in the United States,” it said.

It also noted that the United States was one of few countries to see a rise of so-called “deaths of despair” -- from suicide or substance abuse -- at a time when those deaths are declining in a majority of countries.