Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the eighth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 published Thursday.
Other Nordic countries are also once again at the top of the happiness rankings in the annual report published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. Besides Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden remain the top four and in the same order.
Country rankings were based on answers people give when asked to rate their own lives. The study was done in partnership with the analytics firm Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
When it comes to decreasing happiness — or growing unhappiness —the United States has dropped to its lowest-ever position at 24, having previously peaked at 11th place in 2012. The report states that the number of people dining alone in the United States has increased 53% over the past two decades.
The dining alone hits. The lack of community is palpable in corporate America.
How is Israel even in the top ten? They are truly detached from reality.
If you didn’t put Israel in top ten, it would be considered anti Semitic
The methodology is flawed.
They do ask people how happy they are, but most of the score is from other factors, like GDP, income equality, personal freedoms, etc.I think you misunderstood how the report works. The rankings are from people answering the poll using cantril ladder scoring. Then academics try to look at different statistics in that country to try to explain why people gave their country that score. The academics don’t score the countries.
It’s definetly a flawed methodology. It implies the certain qualities have the same importance to cultures worldwide. I’m born in Scotland but ethnically Punjabi. I go pakistan and i see extreme poverty and struggle, yet I speak and live with people of different classes and it’s often those who are poor but with community who are happiest (something similar applies to many nations I’ve been) not to say wealth wouldn’t make them happier or live longer, but our current capitalist system is a disease that very very few nations were able to effectively control so that the society benefits (gulf Arabs, Singapore and Nordics) but generally wealth doesn’t make a nation happier unless it’s somewhat fairly distributed
I actually got a call from the survey these are based on. While i dont know how they compile the answers into a score, i felt the questions were quite relevant.
Also, i feel finns score high because we are culturally modest people who enjoy the simple things in life. Are we physiologically experiencing more happiness than others? Maybe not. But we propably score high on measurements of how content people say they are. ”Cant compain”
Well the Israelis are definitely really happy.
“Happiness isn’t just about wealth or growth — it’s about trust, connection and knowing people have your back,” said Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup. “If we want stronger communities and economies, we must invest in what truly matters: each other.”
Damn that was very well said
Wealth is just the hoarding of imaginary credits representing the hours of other people’s work.
“When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money.”
Destruction of our society and pollution of our only Earth for paper strips.
“They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them”
Going out without worrying about getting robbed, killed, eating food that’s gonna upset your tummy because someone neglected health regulations, slipping on a turd on the sidewalk someone deliberately didn’t clean up after their dog, overpaying for stuff, getting fucked by the government (be it taxes, inflation, stupid rules).
Yet politicians getting paid in cold hard cash for approving overpriced shit so some wealthy fuck can fill his pockets even more.
We could constructing a Dyson sphere if it wasn’t for fuckers that siphon the money that could be used to improve everyone’s life.
Well, the taxes we have here in Denmark are quite high. We either have the fourth highest rate of tax compared to GDP or the highest, depending on which source you go by. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio
The thing is just that taxes means that the money gets spent directly on improving the lives of the people who live here, instead of people having to buy stuff like health care through companies that skim off the top, and who uses the money you pay them to employ people who try to find ways to not help you.
Taxes helps ensure that everything runs efficiently. A healthier population who are more productive, infrastructure that prevents disruptions to business and daily lives alike, and ensuring that people don’t have to resort to crime if they lose their job or get ill. Crime is another source of inefficiency that gets significantly reduced.
Everything helps ensure that the average person is in a much better state of mind, and mood is contagious - even those who pay the most benefit off of it, and pretty much everyone here agrees that it’s money well spent.
In Danish politics, even the right wing would be considered leftists in the US - we have a lot of political parties (16 in parliament, with 4 of them being from the Faeroe Islands or Greenland).
American here. I would love to visit your country someday. More Americans need to see what a better way of life looks like.
I’d gladly pay more taxes if it meant improving the wellbeing of overyone. The right (as we called it) would be considered left a decade ago as well (today, not sso much).
So jealous of those whose government isn’t a piece of shit good-for-nothing bunch of scum.
You may need to examine your opinion of the role of taxes in a functioning country.
You’re right about corruption, though.
The United States is still at 24th, where do they rank amongst first world countries?
they kinda don’t rank amongst 1st world countries
Dang, I just got ratioed 🫣
Presumably nr 24…
lmfao that’s crazy
Can relate. Am I secretly a Finlandian?
Oh that’s what we got wrong in Iceland, we should’ve kept that red line out of our flag!
Thats hilarious. I love that about finnish people, its a no bullshit country. Say what you mean, do what you say.
I wonder which US state most closely resembles this. Probably in the NE
Minnesota and Upper peninsula could be closest
Many Finnish people historically immigrated to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Iron Range of northern Minnesota to work in the mining industry; much of the population in these regions is of Finnish descent.
A lot of Mainers or northern New Englanders are like that too. My wife things the North Michiganders talk a lot compared to Mainers.
There’s no way. It’s dark half the year and every Finnish people I met didn’t look happy at all, or at least they didn’t express it whatsoever.
Well, when you are as happy and content as Finland, there is no dark.
If seasonal depression is the worst thing your citizens have to deal with, that’s a pretty fucking incredible country imo.
How shitty are things in India when…
I thought Finland and Nordic countries were notoriously depressed all winter??
that’s just the loganberries talking.
Well sure, but the summer actually makes up for it.
(Personally: I’m from Finland, have had depression with seasonal pattern. Winters aren’t that bad, early/late winter sucks though. Psychochemically, because the day length is noticeably changing and sleeping patterns get disturbed. Socially, because all sidewalks and walking paths get really slippery no matter how much sand and gravel they put there and going outside gets a bit scarier.)
As a finn, I can confirm I’m the happiest person in the world for the whole week it’s sunny and doesn’t rain during the summer!
Suomen kesä on kaunis ja vähäluminen.
Also, if you make it through the darkness of November alive, you must have built so much mental resiliency that rest of the year is walk in the park regardless of what happens.
And Canada appears to have reduced happiness, I suspect due in part to our proximity to the USA.
That’s what you get when everyone has a sauna.
And yes, many homes have it and one thing my Finnish friend does is sauna up and then jump in the snow. That’ll wake you up.
The US shot itself in the foot and now it’s pointed at it’s face.
Here’s an old Finnish joke:
Why are people in Finland the happiest people on Earth?
Because all the sad people have killed themselves.It sucks that we still have that reputation abroad. We’re doing a lot better in that front. Also at least 2019 and 2016 our suicide rate was actually lower than the US, where a lot of these jokes come from (I was pretty surprised)
That’s why I said it’s an old Finnish joke.
I lived in Finland long enough to know that the Finns are not really happy. Or unhappy. Or excited. Or anything at all. If they are, they hide it really really well. The only true sentiment I ever felt in the Finns is quiet pride of their country.
Yes, I’m more lamenting the reputation abroad where such views take longer to change.
Finns are the ones who watch, listen and nod. Surprisingly rare in this world of today.
:(
deleted by creator
