One of the conundrums I often confront is how to comprehend Israel’s consistent ranking in the top 10 countries in the World Happiness Report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, in partnership with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and an independent editorial board.
It measures people’s self-assessed life evaluations, averaged over three years. The report uses factors including GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption to help explain differences between countries. For the last five years, Israel has ranked in the top 10, reaching a peak of fourth in 2023, fifth in 2024, and eighth in 2025.
In contrast, Australia, the US, and the UK have occupied rankings between 15 and 30. This is surprising since these countries are universally viewed as amongst the most desirable places to live.
At first glance, it is incomprehensible how a country that has been subject to war, terror and is wracked with social divisions and a dysfunctional political system which has polarised the nation, can achieve, yet alone sustain, such a high ranking.
Some factors can be readily explained.
Israel’s economic development over the last two decades has been remarkable, and its GDP per capita has improved dramatically.
The state is a flourishing democracy despite the high level of disdain that the country’s citizens hold towards its politicians. Witness the protests between supporters and opponents of Benjamin Netanyahu, against the judicial reforms, or over the conduct of the war in Gaza and demands for a negotiated release of the hostages.
Yet it is precisely the fact that there are demonstrations that are absent the kind of violence that the US experienced during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 and the hate marches of the alliance of Islamists and extreme left “Marxist” agitators throughout the West.
When it comes to health services, Israel’s ability to serve its citizens ranks highly. One does not hear the kind of criticisms that are levelled in the US in terms of the exorbitant costs of accessing health care or the repeated failures and shortcomings of the National Health Service in the UK.Israel has many flaws when it comes to social cohesion. There is the divide between religious and secular, Ashkenazi and Sephardi, and the ultra-Orthodox who oppose enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
By comparison, the US has long been beset by social divisions, racism and discrimination. Australia and the UK have seen mass immigration, including many from countries with no tradition of respect for democracy who enter and refuse to assimilate and respect the traditions and norms of the societies they have joined.
Other factors such as trust in government and the presence of corruption would demonstrate that democracies in the West with a history of embracing Judeo-Christian values will generally outrank governments run by autocrats, dictators or those that have been mired in poverty and corruption.
Whilst not seen as a measured metric, the term “resilience “ has often been applied to Israelis who manage to overcome adversity and carry on with their lives, whether after a terror attack or emerging from bomb shelters. Israelis can complain, argue, criticise and debate, but life goes on. Some have opined that Israelis possess this desire to live life to the fullest precisely because of the challenges they must confront.
Another revealing factor is the apparent decline in willingness among some young people in Western democracies such as the UK, US, and Australia to serve in the military or defend their nation. One poll, conducted by YouGov in the UK, found that 50% of young people aged 16-29 would refuse to fight for the UK under any circumstances.
By contrast, in Israel, the way the IDF has been able to rely on its reservists to augment its needs has exceeded all expectations despite the burden, dangers, and sacrifices involved.
I posed this conundrum at a social setting recently and received an emphatic response from one of those present. He stated that the answer can be summarised by one word; for Israelis, life has “meaning.”
As many commentators have argued, the West has been in a state of decay and decline, under assault from the extreme left in tandem with radical Islamists.
Today’s youth in the West now forsake the values of previous generations and have been imbued with progressive “woke” ideologies that are aimed at destroying western civilisation. This nihilistic movement—which includes calls for open borders, defunding the police, attacks on family values, transgender rights and attacking the binary definitions of male and female, global warming and the latest fad, Palestinianism—is creating division and ruptures throughout Western society.
Who could have imagined witnessing the burning or banning of the national flag or emblems in Australia, the US or the UK?
By contrast, the majority of Jews who live in Israel possess great pride in their Jewish identity and the achievements of the Jewish nation in establishing a state that has overcome adversity and continues to excel in all spheres of life.
The unity and support shown by Israelis for one another during the last three years demonstrates that, for many Israeli Jews, there is meaning in terms of living in a generation where they can express their Jewish identity loudly and proudly, unlike previous generations who constantly faced persecution and discrimination whilst in exile.
It is this pride that elevates Israelis to a state of happiness and meaning, and fuels its rise in the rankings. For Israelis and Jews, Israel is not just a military superpower, a safe haven or the start-up nation, it is a beacon of light where Jews are in control of their destiny.
