For the sixth year running, Finland was named the happiest country in the world.
The annual World Happiness Report, which looks at everything from healthy life expectancy to community generosity, once again found the nation of Finland to be the happiest country in the world.
The Nordic countries seemed the best in offering citizens everything they needed to enjoy life and find happiness. Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland all made the top ten.
The report used multiple variables such as gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, and freedom to make life choices.
Finland – the happiest country in the world
With a population of 5.5 million, Finland is a small country located north of the Arctic Circle.
Many factors have been credited with why Finland consistently ranks so well in happiness reports. Chief among them is that work commutes are quick and that people tend to have more free time to enjoy themselves.
The Finnish concept of “sisu,” which describes the people’s stoicism, determination, and resilience, has also been pinpointed as a reason why the country is regarded as the happiest country in the world.
In the past, Finland has used previous wins to promote tourism, their natural beauty, and, in particular, their nightless phenomenon.
The Annual World Happiness Report – the top ten happiest countries in the world
According to the Annual World Happiness Report, the top ten happiest countries in the world were found to be Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.
Other interesting findings of the report were that the US ranked 15th, one spot higher than in 2022 and notably higher than in 2019. The UK came in at 19th, Australia at 12th, and France at 21st.
Lithuania was a new addition to the top 20 countries this year. The country has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years compared to its lowly position of 52 in 2017.
On the other end of the scale, Afghanistan and Lebanon were the two unhappiest countries, with an average life expectancy of five points lower (on a ten-point scale) than the ten happiest countries.
Ukraine unsurprisingly also ranked lowly as they came in 92nd on the list of 109 countries.
World happiness – is on the rise overall
The annual World Happiness Report found that overall, world happiness was on the rise, as acts of benevolence last year were about 25% more common than in the years before the pandemic.
Despite all the pain and suffering over the past few years, people have remained as happy in 2020-2022 as in the pre-pandemic period of 2017-2019.
The report has said that this has happened thanks to the power of friendship: “Positive social connections and support in 2022 were twice as prevalent as loneliness in seven key countries spanning six global regions.
“They were also strongly tied to overall ratings of how satisfied people are with their relationships with other people. The importance of these positive social relations helps further to explain the resilience of life evaluations during times of crisis.”
