Finland maintained its position as the happiest country in the world for the fifth consecutive year, with a score significantly ahead of its peers in the World Happiness Report 2022 ranking.
Denmark kept its second place, Iceland overtook Switzerland for the third place, and the Netherlands rounded out the top five, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network said on Friday. The U.S. ranked 16th, up three places from 2021.
Finland, known for its brutally cold winters and limited daylight, strikes many factors when it come to gauging happiness.
Parents love that their children can get an excellent education in Finland. Officially a bilingual country, both Finnish and Swedish are taught in schools. Many Finnish people also grow up going to the library, a major part of life for the Finns.
Finland is also an incredibly safe country, ranked the safest in the world in 2017, with crime almost non-existent in the rural areas.
Universal health care is seen by Finns as 'the right things to do' as a moral issue. When it comes to adventure, the Finns are big on getting outside and exploring nature, often dubbed a winter wonderland. Finns firmly believe in honesty, what they do say, they mean — and for that, they earn their reputation for being genuine and authentic.
The report which has been published over the last ten years saw the biggest gains in happiness taking place in Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania, and biggest declines posted in Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan.
The authors noted, on average, a long-term moderate upward trend in stress, worry, and sadness in most countries, as well as “a slight long-term decline in the enjoyment of life”
The report is prepared using global survey data to report on how people evaluate their own lives in more than 150 countries around the world, with the ranking based on a three-year average. Key variables that contribute to explaining people’s life evaluations include gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom to make life choices and perceptions of corruption.
-Bloomberg