Finland - Headlyne Blogs

Finland is the happiest country in the world

Finland has maintained its position as the happiest country in the world for seven consecutive years.

For the seventh consecutive year, Finland has claimed the highest position in the annual ranking of the happiest countries worldwide, according to the World Happiness Report. This report, released today, assesses self-reported happiness scores from nearly 150,000 individuals across over 140 countries.

Countries are placed in order based on how people rate their own lives and answer a question called the Cantril ladder. This question asks them to imagine a ladder where 10 is the best life possible and 0 is the worst, and then rate how they feel about their current lives on that scale.

Where does India stand?

India was placed 126th among 143 nations in a worldwide happiness index. The index observed that older age correlates with greater life satisfaction in the world’s most populous country.

The Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, which releases the report, mentions that apart from using the Cantril ladder question, they also look at six other factors when ranking over 130 countries in the report.

1. GDP per capita
2. Social Support
3. Healthy life expectancy
4. Freedom
5. Generosity
6. Freedom of corruption

Although the top ten countries in this year’s list stayed mostly the same, there was more movement within the top 20. Costa Rica and Kuwait moved up to 12th and 13th place, while the United States and Germany dropped out of the top 20 entirely. The U.S. slipped from 15th to 23rd place this year.

Among the top ten happiest countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations exceeding 15 million. And among the top 20, only Canada and the U.K. have populations over 30 million.

Finland secured the top position on the list with a score of 7.741. According to Frank Martela, a Finnish philosopher and psychology researcher, Finnish people are happy because they have a strong sense of community, help others, and have clear goals for themselves. Martela says it’s more accurate to say that Finland has the fewest unhappy people in the world.

Finland does better than most countries in education, balancing work and life, environmental quality, social ties, safety, and happiness, as per the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Better Life Index. People in Finland live long lives, with an average life expectancy of about 82 years, 85 for women and 79 for men. The strong community spirit among Finns is also evident in the OECD Better Life Index, where 96% of people say they have someone dependable to count on in tough times.