NZ slips from list of world's top 10 'happiest' countries

New Zealand is no longer one of the world's top 10 happiest countries, according to the newly released World Happiness Report.

Our neighbours across the ditch, Australia, replaced us at number 10, with Aotearoa relegated to eleventh place.

The 140 participating countries were ranked according to scores from resident's life evaluations. It also considered several factors such as GDP per capita, social support, health, freedom, income, generosity and absence of corruption.

On average, New Zealand was the eleventh happiest country but, when the results were filtered to encompass just those aged under 30, New Zealand dropped to 27th place.

However, New Zealanders aged 60 years and over were ranked the sixth happiest in the world.

Australia, the United States, and Canada recorded similar results.

Finland was ranked as the happiest country in the world for the seventh straight year, beating Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel who rounded out the top five.

Researchers also pointed out that using a three-year average of scores meant countries who endured recent conflict, such as Israel, still ranked highly.