“I was a little bit surprised…” – Costa Rica overtakes Sweden in the World Happiness Report

Aurora Rodriguez has lived in Sweden for over six years after moving from Costa Rica and says the social side of life probably plays a part in how happy people are in Latin America.

“Pura vida”, meaning “pure life”, is sort of an unofficial national motto and cultural philosophy of Costa Rica, and you’ll most likely hear it several times a day in the Central American country. More than just slang, pura vida represents a laid-back, optimistic and stress-free way of living.

Costa Rica vs Sweden

On the other side of the Atlantic are the Nordics, the countries that have long dominated global happiness and wellbeing rankings. But in the 2026 World Happiness Report (WHR), Costa Rica – known for its beaches, biodiversity and climate – has broken into their ranks, climbing from 6th to 4th place, overtaking Sweden.

Here are the top 5 happiest countries according to the latest WHR:

  1. Finland
  2. Iceland
  3. Denmark
  4. Costa Rica
  5. Sweden

Of course you might be wondering: what is “happiness”? In the report, it’s measured with a single question referred to as the Cantril Ladder. People are asked to imagine a ladder with steps from 0 to 10, where 10 is the best possible life for them and 0 the worst, and then they answer which step they currently stand on. A country’s score is the average of those answers over three years.

The report also tracks 7 factors that may help explain why scores differ between countries:

  • GDP per capita
  • Perceptions of corruption
  • Generosity
  • Social support (having someone to count on in times of trouble)
  • Healthy life expectancy (years lived in good health)
  • Freedom to make life choices
  • Residual (factors that cannot be measured)

Sweden beats Costa Rica in almost all these factors. So why does Costa Rica rank above Sweden? The answer is in what the factors cannot explain, and the report calls this the “residual”: the gap between a country’s actual score and the score the first six factors should predict.

Cartago Costa Rica

Costa Rica is popular among tourists for its surf, jungles and volcanoes

This residual gap is why Latin American countries as a group come out happier than what the first six quantifiable factors above might first show – and the report says that it’s been attributed to a variety of factors including “unique features of family and social life” in the region.

Moving from Costa Rica to Sweden

32-year-old Aurora Rodriguez knows both countries well. She grew up in Palmares in Costa Rica, but now lives and works in Sweden, six years after moving there to study a master’s degree in strategic communication. “I was a little bit surprised,” she says of the ranking – but recognises why Costa Ricans, and more broadly Latin Americans, could feel happier.

Money can run short at the end of the month, she says, “but you’re happy because you have your family around, and you have all these other social elements.”

Aurora Rodriguez

Aurora and her Swedish partner Christoffer in Costa Rica

“I think one of the first things that I learned coming to Sweden… this is a much more individualistic society – for the good and for the bad, I guess. I think it’s really interesting that everything is set up for all the kids and everybody to be independent from very early on.”

For Swedes, where parents share 480 days of paid parental leave, it’s normal to send their toddlers to highly subsidised daycare centres not long after their first birthday.

“Everybody can kind of stand on their own very quickly,” says Aurora, “but that doesn't happen in Costa Rica… it's also this whole thing that you should be closer to family, closer to this whole social responsibility.”

One difference she found especially surprising is how the elderly are cared for in Sweden. “It’s very normal to assume that when your parents get a little bit older, then it’s the system’s responsibility to take care of them. Then you send them to an elderly home – and this is something perfectly normal, so your life shouldn’t be affected by the fact that you have an elderly parent that needs more attention…”

“In Costa Rica, it’s the opposite, of course. It’s a whole, like… shame – the idea that you put your elderly parents in a home, and it’s more like you’re being so ungrateful. It’s this whole thing, that the worst thing that happens to somebody is to be sent to a home!” she says with a chuckle.

In Sweden, municipalities are legally required to provide publicly funded care for older people who need it, based on an assessment of their needs – and adult children have no legal obligation to care for or financially support their parents. But in Costa Rica, adult children are legally required to support their parents, if the parents are in financial need and the children have the economic means to pay.

Tracking the cost of living in Costa Rica and Sweden

Even with the residual gap helping lift Costa Rica up the rankings in the World Happiness Report, household economics of course still matter. This is why WageIndicator tracks the cost of living in almost 200 countries, using prices our data collectors record on the ground, and uses them to estimate living wages – the minimum a full-time worker needs to earn to cover basic costs for themselves and their family.

WageIndicator’s Cost of Living database is able to break down prices into specific categories: food, housing and utilities, drinking water, phone and internet, clothing, transport, education, healthcare, and a provision for unexpected events.

When it comes to food prices, data collectors physically go to local markets and shops to record the actual prices of over 70 food items each financial quarter. In Sweden, median food costs for a typical family were around €510 a month (SEK 5,674) in Q3 (July–Sept) this year, while in Costa Rica they were €330 a month (CRC 169,219). Data like this can give companies a reference point for what to pay their employees, while workers and unions can get a basis for wage negotiations, and policymakers a benchmark when setting minimum wages.

Pura Vida vs Hygge

Costa Rica has pura vida, but the Nordics have their own answer: hygge.

The Danish and Norwegian word describes a quality of coziness, warmth and deep contentment, found in simple, everyday pleasures – often associated with the long, dark winters, when staying in with candlelight, warm drinks and good company is almost ritualistic.

For Aurora, though, it’s Stockholm’s diversity she enjoys: “I like to live in a country where I can sit on the bus and listen to five different languages at the same time, and see people that look somewhat different than me.”

– So, where are you happier?

“That’s a good question… I think from where I am in my life right now, I feel I'm more happy here than in Costa Rica. But then of course at some point, I would love to go back.”

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