Finland tops happiness index for 7th year,UN says

Finland retains its title as world’s happiest nation for seventh consecutive year, according to UN report, while US slips out of top 20

Nordic countries kept their places among the ten most cheerful, with Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden trailing Finland.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, stayed at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed.

For the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany were not among the 20 happiest nations, coming in 23rd and 24th respectively.

Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 at 12 and 13.

The report noted the happiest countries no longer included any of the world’s largest countries.

“In the top 10 countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations of over 15 million. In the top 20, only Canada and the UK have populations over 30 million.”

Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Jordan experienced the sharpest decline in happiness since 2006-10, while the Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria, and Latvia reported the most significant increases.

The happiness ranking is based on individuals’ self-assessed evaluations of life satisfaction, GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.

Growing inequality
Jennifer De Paola, a happiness researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told AFP that Finns’ close connection to nature and healthy work-life balance contributed to their life satisfaction.

In addition, Finns may have a “more attainable understanding of what a successful life is” compared to, for example, the United States, where success is often equated with financial gain, she said.

Finns’ strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption, and free healthcare and education were also crucial.

“Finnish society is permeated by a sense of trust, freedom, and high level of autonomy,” De Paola said.

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

In North America, Australia, and New Zealand, happiness among groups under 30 has dropped dramatically since 2006-10, with older generations now happier than the young.

By contrast, in Central and Eastern Europe, happiness increased substantially at all ages during the same period, while in Western Europe, people of all ages reported similar happiness levels.

Happiness inequality increased in every region except Europe, which authors described as a “worrying trend.”

The rise was exceptionally distinct among the old and in Sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting inequalities in “income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the presence of supportive social environments at the family, community and national levels,” the authors said.

Source: AFP

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