“In the World Happiness Report 2026, one pattern appears consistently across regions: Happiness is changing across generations.

• In Europe, higher internet use is associated with declines in trust and perceived social connection among younger age groups.
• Cross-national evidence suggests that the impact of social media depends not only on time spent, but on how platforms are used and how saturated digital environments become within peer groups.

The report does not imply that digital technologies uniformly reduce wellbeing. Instead, it highlights how social media interacts with trust, social comparison and generational context to influence life evaluation.

If you have not yet explored this year’s edition, download the full report to examine the data, methodology and global rankings in detail.”