The United Nations' 2019 survey about the level of happiness in 156 countries ranked Lebanon as the 91st happiest country globally and the 11th happiest nation among 20 countries in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. Also, Lebanon came in 27th place among 39 upper middle-income countries (UMICs) included in the survey.

The UN's measure of happiness is based on annual polls that were conducted by opinion polling and consulting firm Gallup between 2016 and 2018, with the results converted into a numerical score for each country. The survey asked respondents to evaluate their lives by placing their current living conditions on a "ladder" scale ranging from zero to 10 and to assign a score accordingly, where zero reflects the worst possible life and 10 points the best possible life. The poll typically interviews 1,000 respondents per year in each country. 

The survey indicated that social support, or having someone to count on when in distress, explains about 23.6% of Lebanese citizens' overall happiness, the 56th highest share globally. GDP per capita follows with 19% (60th highest share), then expectations of a healthy life with 15.7% (29th highest share globally), freedom to make life choices with 4.2% (20th lowest share), generosity or donating money to charity with 3.2% (87th highest share), and perceptions of corruption with 0.5% (18th lowest share). The survey found that the citizens of Finland are the happiest worldwide, while those of South Sudan are the least happy globally.

In parallel, Lebanon came in 82nd place among 133 countries in the world on data covering the 2005-2008 period. Lebanon's rank improves by one spot when using countries that have data for both the 2005-2008 and the 2016-2018 periods. Lebanon was one of 78 nations globally and one of six countries in the MENA region to post an increase in the level of happiness between the 2005-2008 survey and the 2016-2018 survey.