In the Oyster of Happiness – Ipsos annual Happiness Monitor reveals what makes Indians happy – on International Day of Happiness 2025.

Mumbai: Ipsos IndiaBus annual Happiness Monitor brings glad tidings for Indians around happiness! The annual scorecard on happiness shows that at least 72% of urban Indians polled are in a happy state. Throughout the year we do see some crests and troughs indicating the yo-yo effect of external and internal factors, impacting the happiness levels of citizens.  For instance, happiness levels were higher during Jan 2024-June 2024 and then saw a slight dip  from August 2024-October 2024, recovering during the festival season in November 2024 and the euphoria lasting till December 2024. Then again a mixed bag from December 2024 to March 2025. 

March 20th marks the International Day of Happiness when citizens across the world celebrate happiness as the fundamental human goal. And to make happiness all pervasive, this year’s theme is about fostering the spirit of, Caring and Sharing. And to see how India is doing on happiness and has done in the last one year, we aggregated the happiness scores for the past one year.      

The annual happiness monitor provides a peek into the oyster of happiness and what factors account for reaching the zenith in happiness and on the flip side, the nadir in happiness.  

Family has emerged the biggest source of happiness for most citizens (75%) and throughout the year close family ties have been the bedrock of happiness. Post Covid19, family ties have greatly strengthened especially when everyone was locked in, during shutdowns. And the deadly virus has reshaped the priorities of Indians. Health (69%) is another key area inducing happiness, reinforcing the importance of physical and mental wellbeing. Further, friends too emerged as the dominant source of happiness(67%).

The other areas that contributed to happiness were work (66%) and colleagues (65%). Happiness was seen to be lower around finances (58%), showing a bit of a squeeze around spending for discretionary spends. The other areas with lower happiness scores were macro in nature – the situation of the country (57%) and the situation of the world (53%). The global economic slowdown, wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and climate change, accounting for extreme weather conditions of floods and inadequate rainfall in some areas, have added to the woes of the citizens, lowering their happiness levels.  

“Our objective of mapping happiness of citizens across the length and breadth of the country has been to gauge how we are doing as a country on happiness. After all, happiness is not just an emotion, it impacts physical and mental wellbeing and is a reflection of good or bad governance, and is of interest to the government. To cite an example, in February, the finance minister announced tax breaks for the middle class, and the RBI also cut the repo rate by 25 basis points (bps); these initiatives had a positive impact on happiness and we saw happiness increase in March 2025 over Feb 2025. Family, health, friends, work have a greater role in upping the happiness quotient of citizens. Finances continue to worry urban Indians. There is still lack of financial freedom with multifarious expenses to deal with,” stated Parijat Chakraborty, Group Service Line Leader, Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation, CSR & ESG, Ipsos India.