Finland retains ranking as world's happiest country

European nations again dominate top spots in UN-sponsored report; Singapore is 32nd on list

People in Finland have access to a high quality of life, security and public services, with rates of inequality and poverty among the lowest of all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
People in Finland have access to a high quality of life, security and public services, with rates of inequality and poverty among the lowest of all Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

HELSINKI • Covid-19 has done little to alter the ranking of the world's happiest countries, with Finland at the top for a fourth year running, an annual United Nations-sponsored report said.

The researchers behind the World Happiness Report, now in its ninth year, used Gallup data gathered from asking people in 149 countries or territories to rate their own happiness, also taking into account measures such as gross domestic product, social support, personal freedom and levels of corruption to give each nation a happiness score, which is an average of the past three years.

Once again, the top spots were dominated by European countries with Denmark coming in second, followed by Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands.

New Zealand, falling one place to ninth, was again the only non-European nation in the top 10.

Singapore ranked 32nd on the list, falling one place. Australia was 11th, Taiwan 24th and Thailand 54th.

Other climbers included Germany, from 17th to 13th, and France, rising two spots to 21st.

Britain fell from 13th to 17th, while the United States dropped one position to 19th.

African nations Lesotho, Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe occupied the bottom of the table but were ahead of Afghanistan, which was classed as the world's unhappiest nation this year.

The authors also compared this year's data with previous years' averages to gauge the impact of the pandemic, and found "significantly higher frequency of negative emotions" in just more than a third of the countries.

But positive emotions rose in 22 countries, and "surprisingly there was not, on average, a decline in well-being when measured by people's own evaluation of their lives", said Mr John Helliwell, one of the report's compilers.

"One possible explanation is that people see Covid-19 as a common, outside threat affecting everybody and that this has generated a greater sense of solidarity."

Author Jeffrey Sachs warned that "we need urgently to learn from Covid-19", adding that "we must aim for well-being rather than mere wealth".

Finland, which throughout the health crisis has reported some of Europe's lowest incidences of the coronavirus, "ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic", the authors said.

Finland's top spot has previously been met with raised eyebrows in the nation whose population of 5.5 million is said to shy away from spontaneous demonstrations of joy, valuing instead the quiet and solitude of its forests and lakes.

Finland's residents enjoy a high quality of life, security and public services, with rates of inequality and poverty among the lowest of all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on March 21, 2021, with the headline Finland retains ranking as world's happiest country. Subscribe