The latest iteration of the annual World Happiness Report 2026 has placed the Dominican Republic at 64th position out of 147 evaluated nations, with the Caribbean country earning an average well-being score of 6.093 on a 0 to 10 scale. The ranking draws on three years of data from the Gallup World Poll, collected between 2023 and 2025, a methodology designed to deliver a more stable, long-term view of national happiness rather than capturing short-term fluctuations in public mood.
Unlike simple public opinion polls that only ask for self-reported happiness, the World Happiness Report framework goes deeper, breaking down the drivers of well-being across six core metrics: GDP per capita as a measure of economic opportunity, the strength of social support networks, national average healthy life expectancy, citizens’ perceived freedom to make key life choices, levels of generosity within communities, and public perceptions of corruption in government and business.
One of the most notable takeaways for the Dominican Republic in this year’s report is its consistent upward trajectory in the rankings over recent years. The country now stands out among the cohort of nations that have posted meaningful, measurable improvements in how their citizens perceive their overall quality of life.
Beyond its standard global ranking exercise, this year’s report included a targeted special analysis focused exclusively on the Dominican Republic, exploring a widely debated question: does the number of social media platforms a person use correlate with their overall life satisfaction? To answer this, researchers analyzed data from 2023–2024 Latinobarometer surveys, drawing responses from 1,891 Dominican participants aged 15 and older. The analysis covered usage of all major regional platforms, including Meta-owned WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, professional network LinkedIn, video-sharing platform YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and short-form video app TikTok.
After controlling for a wide range of confounding variables that could skew results—including interpersonal trust, public confidence in government, levels of religiosity, socioeconomic class, and individual perceptions of the national economy—the research team reached a surprising conclusion. There is no statistically significant connection between the number of social media platforms a person uses and whether they report higher or lower levels of personal life satisfaction.
First launched more than a decade ago, the World Happiness Report remains the leading global comparison of population well-being across countries. Its annual publication provides policymakers, researchers and civil society organizations with actionable data on how economic, social and institutional conditions shape how people experience and evaluate their daily lives.