This is the ninth World Happiness Report. The editors use the foreword to offer our thanks to all those who have made the report possible over the past nine years and to thank the team of editors and partners as they prepare for our decennial report in 2022.

As noted within the report, this year has been one like no other. The Gallup World Poll team has faced significant challenges in collecting responses this year due to COVID-19, and we much appreciate their efforts to provide timely data for this report. We were also grateful for the World Risk Poll data provided by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation as part of their risk supplement to the Gallup World Poll in 2019. We also greatly appreciate the life satisfaction data collected during 2020 as part of the Covid Data Hub run in 2020 by Imperial College London and the YouGov team. These data partnerships are all much appreciated.