The Happiest Country
In a new list of Happiest countries Finland is the happiest. The UK and US are 23 and 24. Below is the BBC article.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr72xep44kdo
Northern European countries dominate but Costa Rico, Mexico and Luxembourg are all in the top ten.
What can the rest of us do to make things better?
Good public services seem to be a strong factor in happiness and being closer to nature. For me we need to have a more left leaning government. Not necessarily fully left but one that invests in public services, and the general environment. If that means more taxes then so be it. I know some will not agree with me so here is our chance to talk about what makes a happy country,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr72xep44kdo
Northern European countries dominate but Costa Rico, Mexico and Luxembourg are all in the top ten.
What can the rest of us do to make things better?
Good public services seem to be a strong factor in happiness and being closer to nature. For me we need to have a more left leaning government. Not necessarily fully left but one that invests in public services, and the general environment. If that means more taxes then so be it. I know some will not agree with me so here is our chance to talk about what makes a happy country,
Comments
As always, these things are multifactorial. There is an increase in loneliness (such as eating alone) and distrust of others. Happier countries tend to be more generous and kinder. But when your political leaders demonize kindness and generosity as "being woke" it should not be a surprise that young adults don't perceive that as existing in the US. (Not that it doesn't exist. It does, but it is underestimated, leading to unhappiness.)
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
I'm broadly in agreement with your take on this but would add the following:
- close knit communities with a less 'atomised' and individualistic vibe.
- people involved in creative activity and making their own entertainment to some extent rather than relying on TV celebs, the internet etc. Ok, I know I'm into poetry groups and readings and amateur dramatics but I can also see how much value local bands, choirs and such like bring to a community. You will know from your involvement in dance how that brings people together.
- local produce and farmers' markets etc.
The list could be longer but that will do for a starter.
You are free to add things; but as @Hedgehog indicates above these are multifactorial; so whereas Finland's placing is down to "access to nature and a strong welfare system as factors" "family bonds were a factor in Costa Rica's and Mexico's rise in the rankings".
So we could all come up with much longer and more comprehensive lists, and to an extent it would great if we were making progress along each one, but until that point progress in some of those factors can make up for failure or lack of movement in others.
From a quick look at the report, it looks like it was based on polling and partially ranking preferences: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2025/#appendices-and-data
Oh, what is that from?
Goldsmith The Deserted Village. True then, true now.
Alas, not a few 'incomers' have gravelled over theit gardens an appear to work remotely ....
But we do what we can ..... roll on the next craft fair!
We have friends in Helsinki. Last year they were issued with iodine for their toddler to be kept in case of nuclear fall-out.
I suspect that if I had a toddler and government-issue iodine in the medicine cupboard, I would not be happy. But perhaps it feels similar to having Calpol in the cupboard in case of a fever or ear-ache.
Oh well, mustn't grumble 😈
PS Cartoon in recent Private Eye has a man with a clipboard standing in front of a 'British Antarctic Survey' building and talking to a penguin who is saying "I'm a bit busy, but go on.."
So we're in the top 12% of countries for happiness? Sounds reasonable to me.
Here in Pullman, there was a recent report on how the use of therapy dogs seem to help relieve stress and for freshman students at the university.
I think that holds true for most people. Having a dog uplifts a person's spirit. Cats, not so much (probably the other way around, IMHO).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
Thank you, Ruth. It looks as though Greenland is skewing the figures for Denmark. The difference is gobsmacking.
Look again. The long list of countries is from the WHO in 2019. The global suicide rate discussed in the opening is from 2021 data. Other sections refer to a 2024 WHO report.
Little comment at the top of the chart:
Notice how the polar countries have social democratic governments.
While I agree with the insights of the happiness article, there might also be other factors that impact the happiness of people the article did not consider. Owning a pet does help, though dogs are much better than cats.
This doesn't support your claim that the data is more than 20 years out of date.
Is there any indication having a faith helps? Oh, and why (oh why) are dogs better than cats?
My main concern was that it was out of date, not how old it was.
I have had cats and I have had dogs. Dogs can be trained and they know who is in charge. Cats think they are in charge
They also tend to be very monocultural - something which seems to correlate not just with social democratic government but with social connections, prosocial behavior, trusting others, and giving (which, as Ruth pointed out, are the things the survey itself highlighted).
Correlation is not causation, of course, nor does monoculturality necessarily imply or require being monoethnic.
Think. Know, more likely.
because you feed them, dogs think you are God; because you feed them, cats think they are god.
https://forums.shipoffools.com/discussion/6328/dogs-or-cats-lets-have-a-heavenly-argument#latest
la vie en rouge, Purgatory host
Denmark is within a couple of percentage points of being as monocultural as the UK. There's an easier measure, the level of social democracy in Western Europe is largely a factor of threat from the Warsaw Pact.
There isn't really a clear picture here; Sweden has higher levels of loneliness, Denmark and Finland are a bit better, but Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic report lower levels of loneliness than all of them.
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC133351
That said, their lives look pretty good, although most of what I'm seeing is photos of a cute toddler doing cute toddler stuff.
They have always had occasional practice air-raid sirens, but currently they have them monthly. I'd find that unnerving, but E says that although the need for increased frequency is worrying, the sirens themselves are no more alarming than a fire drill here.
I used to have regular contact with a bunch of Finns through my work, visits etc. I might have thought that the Finns might be happiest, but as a visitor it might be hard to detect it!
If you go to Portsmouth you can still experience a weekly air raid siren test. I guess Devonport is the same.
Only covers the dockyard (and is more of a security alarm these days), but it is done with air raid sirens and echoes across the city.
I remember Birmingham’s last city-wide air raid siren test. Summer of 1993, in the middle of a maths exam.
Outsiders might judge them to be monocultural. They might not think so. The Sami can be found in several countries, Norway has dialectic divides which they think is important, Finland has significant Swedish and Orthodox minorities, and all have immigrant populations in recent years, of varying degrees of integration.
I only know Iceland in depth from a few visits over the years, but I am reluctant to compare happiness indicators....