Finland remains the happiest country in the world for seventh consecutive year

Finland is the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row in the annual United Nations-sponsored World Happiness Report released on Wednesday.

The Nordic countries continue to rank among the ten happiest countries, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing behind Finland.

Afghanistan has been plagued by a humanitarian disaster since the Taliban regained control in 2020, ranking last among the 143 countries surveyed.

For the first time since the report was released more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany failed to rank among the 20 happiest countries, ranking 23rd and 24th respectively.

Costa Rica and Kuwait round out the top 20 at 12th and 13th respectively.

The report notes that the happiest countries no longer include any of the world’s largest countries.

“Among the top 10 countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations above 15 million. Of the entire top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations above 30 million.”

Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan experienced the largest declines in happiness since 2006-10, while the Eastern European countries of Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia experienced the largest increases.

The happiness rankings are based on individuals’ self-evaluations of life satisfaction, as well as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption.

Growing inequality

Jennifer de Paola, a happiness researcher at Finland’s University of Helsinki, told AFP that Finns’ close connection with nature and a healthy work-life balance are key factors in their life satisfaction.

In addition, Finns may have an “easier understanding of what it means to live a successful life” than in countries like the United States, where success is often equated with financial gain, she said.

Finland’s strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption, and free health care and education are also key.

“Finnish society is full of a sense of trust, freedom and a high degree of autonomy,” DePaola said.

This year’s report also found that in most, but not all, parts of the world, younger generations are happier than their older peers.

In North America, Australia and New Zealand, happiness among those under 30 has fallen sharply since 2006-10, with older generations now happier than younger people.

In contrast, in Central and Eastern Europe, happiness increased significantly across all age groups over the same period, while in Western Europe, happiness levels were similar across age groups.

Happiness inequality is rising in all regions except Europe, which the authors describe as a “worrying trend”.

The authors noted that this increase was particularly pronounced among older adults and in sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting inequalities in “income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the existence of supportive social environments at family, community, and national levels.” equality. explain.