General

Finland tops the World Happiness Report

March 20, 2021 /

Today, March 20th, is the International Day of Happiness. According to the ninth World Happiness Report, published yesterday, Finland is once again on the top of the happiness rankings (for a fourth year running). It is followed by the usual culprits: Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands. As usual, the happiest countries in the world are predominantly in Western Europe. New Zealand is the only non-European country in this year’s top 10 (9th place). Canada is no longer in the top 10 (15th place), whereas Germany has made it to the top 10 of the happiest countries in the world. My home country, Greece, is in the 51st place (better than last year’s 59th), tucked between South Korea and China.

How is happiness measured

Happiness is a concept hard to define and even harder to measure. According to the foreword of this year’s report, ‘although the World Happiness Report is based on a wide variety of data, the most important source has always been the Gallup World Poll. The life evaluations from the Gallup World Poll provide the basis for the annual happiness rankings.’

To measure the life evaluations, ‘the Gallup World Poll asks respondents to evaluate their current life as a whole using the image of a ladder, with the best possible life for them as a 10 and worst possible as a 0.’

Although the happiness rankings are based on life evaluations, ‘the measurement of subjective well-being relies on three main indicators: life evaluations, positive emotions, and negative emotions.’

The reason why happiness rankings are based on life evaluations is that they provide ‘the most informative measure for international comparisons. Life evaluations capture the quality of life in a more complete and stable way than emotional reports based on daily experiences.’

This year’s 20 happiest countries in the world:

  1. Finland
  2. Iceland
  3. Denmark
  4. Switzerland 
  5. The Netherlands
  6. Sweden
  7. Germany
  8. Norway
  9. New Zealand
  10. Austria
  11. Israel
  12. Australia
  13. Ireland
  14. United States of America
  15. Canada
  16. Czech Republic
  17. Belgium
  18. United Kingdom
  19. Taiwan
  20. France

Of those, I am glad to say I have visited 15 (including the UK, where I currently live).

Further reading

To read more about happiness, check out my post ‘15 Books about Happiness For All, Forever‘.

Alex

(the hopefully-soon-to-be-Traveling-again Psychiatrist)