Finland is at the top of the table when it comes to happiness:
Jay Doubleyou: why are finns so happy?
They've done it again:
World Happiness Report: Finland named as happiest country for eighth year - BBC News
How do they do it?
One reason is good working conditions:
Finland has retained its position as the world’s happiest country for an eighth year running, with the country’s comprehensive welfare system having a strong sway on the outcome, according to analysts.
The UN-sponsored World Happiness Report saw Costa Rica and Mexico enter the top 10 for the first time. The UK slipped to 23rd in the list while the US fell a place to 24th – its lowest ever position.
Finnish CEO of customer feedback company HappyOrNot Miika Mäkitalo, said workplace culture played a massive part in happiness for societies. He said: “In Finland, we believe in offering practical solutions that enable employees to manage their professional and personal lives. For instance, the Working Hours Act allows employees to adjust their working hours by up to three hours and promotes remote working, giving individuals greater control over their schedules.
Finland’s workplaces the key to top spot in World Happiness Index - Personnel Today
Another reason is kindness:
Belief in the kindness of others is much more closely tied to happiness than previously thought, according to World Happiness Report 2025, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford
The country rankings are based on a three-year average of each population’s average assessment of their quality of life. Experts from economics, psychology, sociology and beyond then analyse and seek to explain the variations across countries and over time using factors such as GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption. These factors help to explain the differences across nations, while the rankings themselves are based solely on the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives.
This is connected to the nature of our media - both social and mainstream.
Many of the stories in the UK are sensationalist, tabloid, focussed on murder and mayhem - and the general meanness of humanity:
Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters
Jack the Ripper and the tabloid press - The History Press
Constructing Crime: Media, Crime, and Popular Culture
The News of the World's sensational history | News of the World | The Guardian
The UK and the US are at the bottom of the table - and we need to ask to what extent our media contribute to that:
The latest research suggests that the news can shape us in surprising ways – from our perception of risk to the content of our dreams, to our chances of having a heart attack.How the news changes the way we think and behave - BBC Future
The media so often talk about 'stranger danger' - but this is not the case:
Strangers are about twice as kind as people think, a study looking at happiness across the globe suggests. This year’s World Happiness Report – released on Thursday and published by the BBC – measured trust in strangers by deliberately losing wallets, seeing how many were returned, and comparing that with how many people thought would be handed in.
The rate of wallets returned was almost twice as high as people predicted and the study, which gathered evidence from around the world, found belief in the kindness of others was more closely tied to happiness than previously thought.
The report also ranked Finland as the world’s happiest country for the eighth year running, with the US and UK slipping down the list.
An economist at the University of British Columbia and a founding editor of the report, John Helliwell, said the wallet experiment data showed “people are much happier living where they think people care about each other”. He added the study showed people were “everywhere too pessimistic”, with wallets much more likely to be returned than predicted.
The 13th annual World Happiness Report, released to mark the UN’s International Day of Happiness, ranks the world’s happiest countries by asking people to evaluate their lives. Finland again took top spot with an average score of 7.736 out of 10, while Costa Rica and Mexico have entered the top 10 for the first time. Both the UK and the US slipped down the list to 23rd and 24th respectively – the lowest-ever position for the latter.
Strangers kinder than expected, global happiness report reveals
It's also about sharing meals and having somebody to count on:
Researchers say that beyond health and wealth, some factors that influence happiness sound deceptively simple: sharing meals with others, having somebody to count on for social support, and household size. In Mexico and Europe, for example, a household size of four to five people predicts the highest levels of happiness, the study said.
Believing in the kindness of others is also much more closely tied to happiness than previously thought, according to the latest findings.
U.S. Falls to Its Lowest-Ever Ranking in Latest World Happiness Report | TIME
There are some in the UK media who don't like this report:
The World Happiness Report is a sham | The Spectator
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