World Happiness Report 2027 will focus on the impact of public policy on people’s happiness.
The editors welcome chapter proposals from around the world before the deadline of Sunday 31 May.
Background
The World Happiness Report is the world’s foremost publication on global wellbeing, reflecting a worldwide demand for more attention on happiness as the basis for government policy.
Each year, the report highlights the state of happiness in the world and shows how the science of wellbeing explains personal and national variations in happiness.
The report is 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.
Theme
The theme for World Happiness Report 2027 is happiness and public policy.
A team from the LSE Centre for Economic Performance will write a scene-setting chapter on how public expenditure can best promote the happiness of the people using benefit/cost analysis. This will build on ideas from their 2024 report, Value for money: How to improve wellbeing and reduce misery.
The WHR editors are looking for other examples from across the world, including analysis of how happiness could be better promoted in different countries. They are interested in chapter proposals across a wide range of issues, including:
- How far do existing policies in different countries (or groups of countries) explicitly target happiness and how far are policies evaluated ex post against that outcome?
- What are the reasons why this approach is not more common?
- What are good policies for promoting happiness, and how cost-effective are they (either in prospect or when evaluated ex post)? The editors are interested both in new ideas and in existing policies, already evaluated. These can involve policies of governments, organisations, institutions, communities, or enterprises.
- Examples of good appraisal and evaluation, whether the policy is good or bad. The editors welcome discussion of difficulties in doing this well and how they have been overcome. They are also interested in any discussions or illustrations of where the wellbeing approach differs from other approaches.
How to submit a proposal
Proposals must be uploaded as a PDF file via this form by midnight on Sunday 31 May.
Your proposal should not exceed two A4 pages (including references) and should contain:
- A precise research question that is relevant to the theme.
- A summary of the datasets and methodologies you will use to answer this question.
- The names and affiliations of the author team.
Key dates
31 May: Deadline for chapter proposals
15 June: Editors confirm selected proposals
28 September: Deadline for first drafts
October: Conference of chapter authors (online/in-person TBD)
04 January: Deadline for final manuscripts
20 March: Publication of World Happiness Report 2027
Contact us
If you have any questions, please contact Barry Grimes, WHR Production Editor, at [email protected]