This may be the perfect time to explore what attributes are in place making Finland happiest country in the world for the fifth year in a row
The tenth World Happiness Report has been released just ahead of the annual International Day of Happiness on March 20
The following written content from Laura Begley Bloom
The World Happiness Report—which ranks global happiness in more than 150 countries around the world—is released every year by the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. The statisticians base the ranking on data from the Gallup World Poll and several other factors, including levels of GDP, life expectancy and more.
With the world entering the third year of the pandemic, the report had three areas of focus in 2022: looking back; looking at how people and countries are doing in the face of Covid-19; and looking ahead to how the science of well-being is likely to evolve in the future.
The good news: This year’s report found remarkable worldwide growth in all three acts of kindness monitored in the Gallup World Poll. “Helping strangers, volunteering and donations in 2021 were strongly up in every part of the world, reaching levels almost 25% above their pre-pandemic prevalence,” says John Helliwell, professor at the University of British Columbia and the editor of the World Happiness Report.
Some other good news, despite the pandemic: “Positive emotions as a whole remained more than twice as frequent as negative ones,” says Helliwell.
The list
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Switzerland
- Netherlands
- Luxembourg
- Sweden
- Norway
- Israel
- New Zealand
- Austria
- Australia
- Ireland
- Germany
- Canada
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Czech Republic
- Belgium
- France
According to the report, there is still a lot of year-to-year consistency in the way people rate their lives in the top-ranking countries. So where did other countries fall on the list this year? In this year’s report, the U.S. came in at number 16. Our neighbors in Canada, however, beat us, at number 15. France reached its highest ranking to date, at number 20.
Besides the happiest countries in the world, the report also looked at the places where people are the saddest. Afghanistan ranked as the unhappiest countries in the world, with Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana rounding out the bottom five.
So what makes Finland so happy? “Research shows that high national ranking on these surveys is not so much about culture. It’s more about how a country’s institutions take care of their people—this leads to higher ratings of life satisfaction,” says Aalto University expert Frank Martela, a philosopher and the author of the book A Wonderful Life – Insights on Finding a Meaningful Experience (HarperCollins 2020).
Other factors contributing to Finland’s success include smart urban planning and access to green spaces to reduce stress and promotes physical activity, an effective system of progressive taxation and strong healthcare and education systems.
Curiously, Finland shares a border with Russia, marking a grim reality during a time of war: the happiest country set alongside one of the unhappiest. Russia came in at number 80 on the list. Read more from Forbes
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