Finland has been named the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row. While the Scandinavian countries lead the ranking, Germany continues to slip. What is the secret of happiness?
The happiest people on earth live far up north. For the seventh year in a row, Finland is the country with the happiest population in the world, according to the annual World Happiness Report released on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the top positions are once again largely occupied by northern countries. Finland was followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Israel. Germany, on the other hand, made a significant move downwards and slipped from 16th place to 24th place. The ranking includes a total of 143 countries.
In the report, the scientists looked at the period between 2021 and 2023. Subjective assessments of the lives of the population living in the country were evaluated. Global happiness inequality has increased by more than twenty percent across all regions and age groups over the past twelve years.
According to the World Happiness Report, the unhappiest country is Afghanistan. There is a difference of around 6 points on the average happiness scale from 0 to 10 between the country with the happiest people, Finland (7.7), and the unhappiest country Afghanistan (1.7). Germany has a value of 6.7, in the World Happiness Report from 2023 it was 6.9.
How do the Northern Lights manage to be – and stay – so happy year after year?
Great satisfaction in the north
“What all Scandinavian or Nordic countries have in common is that they have very small populations that are very down-to-earth,” says Catarina Lachmund of the German Press Agency. She is a senior analyst at the Institute for Happiness Research in Denmark. Happiness can be defined as satisfaction. Denmark also repeatedly managed to be high in the rankings. It last took the top spot in 2016.
The happiness researchers did not go into detail in the report about exactly what makes the Finns happier than all other peoples on earth. However, they have identified a number of key factors that generally make people happier, such as social support, income, freedom and the absence of corruption.
“So it’s not necessarily happy in the sense of jumping up and down, of joy in the moment. It’s more of a feeling of contentment. That’s an important point, I think,” says Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report. The fact is that people in Scandinavian countries rate their own lives very highly in these points and are satisfied.
“What really sets them apart is the social support and trust,” says De Neve. This is particularly about social cohesion. “When it comes to friends you can rely on, the state you can rely on in times of need – they trust each other.”
Trust in supporting institutions
And it is precisely this trust that people from the north also have in their government and institutions. Not least through a calm manner. “I would like to call it waiting. Now we’ll take a look at it calmly, drink a coffee and eat a cinnamon roll. And then we’ll make a decision that will be approved by the majority of the population is covered,” says Lachmund, describing the Nordic tranquility.
“One factor is that the government functions effectively, but above all that it is actually able to be there for the citizens,” says Finnish psychologist Frank Martela. So it’s not necessarily that Finland has the most excessively happy people, but rather that there are very few extremely unhappy people in Finland, says Martela. This also contributes to people comparing themselves less with others.
It is precisely this compensation that makes a difference. Making unhappy people happier instead of making those who are already happy even happier: “Countries are extremely good at converting their wealth into well-being and balancing out the extremes,” affirms Lachmund.
Movement in the ranking
Overall, a lot has changed in the ranking of the happiest countries, especially in the middle. Germany slipped eight places down. The assessment of life or the quality of life as experienced by people in Germany is somewhat lower this time than last year. In the list, the largest countries are no longer among the happiest 20 – the USA also went down: 23rd place instead of last place 15th.
“In other countries, life ratings have increased, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, and this has obviously pushed them out of the top 20,” says De Neve, assessing the shifts. Countries such as Lithuania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic in particular have increased in satisfaction.
In order to dethrone the Nordic states, a lot more change will probably be needed. “I would hope that the reason that the Scandinavian countries will eventually lose the top position is because other countries have become better at this,” says Martela. According to him, the other countries can only learn something from the north.