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.
It is like being a Nazi does not make you happy. Imagine that.
Israel has dived head first into being Nazis and they’re almost all fucking about it. They’re just happy they get to exterminate the jews be the ones doing the extermination this time.
The ‘problem’ the US has is only 1/3 of us have embraced being nazis, while another 1/3 doesn’t give a shit.
Finland technically doesn’t have complete separation of religion from state and has a really proto-fascist set of state symbols, though, part from the Russian Empire, part from the White Guard.
Just since it’s a functioning nation, these things don’t affect it much.
Also unlike, say, Sweden, Finland never fully jumped on the multiculturalism train and such.
One can say honesty and true moderation make you happy.
I’ve never been in Finland, though, what I can say of why being in Estonia (not living there though) makes you feel happy - it’s like Russia in my childhood (hard to explain), but clean and fixed and without tasteless expensive things everywhere (ugly malls, ugly decoration, ugly everything, people deciding on how things look nice in Russia have taste worse than average ; maybe in Moscow this is simply because people with money who moved there from outside think this is how things are done in Moscow, people don’t just live here, it’s a matter of prestige that a fscking barbershop should look like a mafia meeting place or Gringotts bank entrance, btw bank offices are actually kinda normal in appearance ; and places you need to actually visit are behind some unnumbered door under a leaking pipe). Still many bad things feel similar to Russia too, but that’s likely just autistic experience.
Dining alone makes me happy.
One might argue that people preferng to be alone is a symptom of the problem - if the motivation is to avoid stress and frustration.
On the other hand, if being alone is used in a balanced way as a form of self-care in a noisy world that demands so much of us, it can be healthy.
In the end, I would say, it all depends on whether this solitude feels empowering or isolating.
As a Finn, I’d like to remind you this is 50% bullshit.
They go around asking people how they are and in Finnish culture, you’re not allowed to complain, and our society sees to it that we give even substance abusers and drunks rent money, so people answer “can’t complain”.
Finnish people are emotionally stunted and don’t even understand the concept of happiness.
So… people with addictions are treated as people and provided for, and they ‘can’t complain’ about their overall circumstances. Therefore the Finnish are emotionally stunted? There’s a leap of logic here
As someone who grew up in Finland, I get what they mean. Finns only bitch about things to their inner friend circle (very small circle usually), anyone outside that gets maybe a sarcastic everything’s great, especially that thing that’s really pissing me off right now kind of response. At the same time pretty much everyone gets treated generally fine and there is great support available for anyone, so it checks out those markers I assume this happiness quiz thing looks for. Why this feels weird for Finns though, is that there’s also some widespread deep depression in Finnish culture. From my viewpoint as someone who hasn’t lived in Finland for a long time now, I think unlike most other places the source of the depression isn’t the system grinding you down, it’s more internal than that. Maybe just dealing with the elements and trying to figure out what you want do with your life kind of shit.
I’m not Finnish and I got it. Sounds like my dad who’s a bit of a hardass and doesn’t like for others to worry. Life is hard, what’s complaining going to do? And yeah I’d say he’s emotionally stunted and has trouble forming real connections.
I’d agree.
Except I know support isn’t actually available. Everyone says it is. But it actually isn’t.
You won’t get evicted or starve, but battling bureaucracy and being ignored by people will get to your happiness.
So… people with addictions are treated as people and provided for,
Definitely not what I said.
You’re saying I’m saying A caused B, when I am actually saying that A is a symptom of B.
Want to see the pictures of the cell I was kept in for more than three days without my prescribed meds?
There is no way a majority of the guards / police could’ve been ignorant of it. Also, they turned off my water for almost a day. Literally crimed against humanity.
I once walked into an ER and after telling them I’m afraid I’ll hurt myself or someone else, the on-call psychiatrist told me “don’t try to make this my responsibility”. Like… my man. That’s literally your job description and legal duty.
But here you are, a Finn, I presume, making strawmen, since the only feeling you haven’t repressed is anger towards people who actually feel.
in Finnish culture, you’re not allowed to complain
What a load of shit, people complain openly all the time. Foreigners are even shocked when sometimes we’re too frank in answering "how are you doing
and our society sees to it that we give even substance abusers and drunks rent money, so people answer “can’t complain”.
You think the ranking is bs because we realize that things are pretty good here? People say “can’t complain” because they are content with what they got and know things could be a lot worse. It’s not being emotionally stunted or some other bs, it’s the realization that things are pretty good here.
It’s funny, every time we do good in something there’s loads of these people who rush to say how it’s bs and how we actually suck. Now that’s the Finnish spirit.
It’s literally measuring contentedness, not happiness.
Saying “Finland is the happiest country in the world” is akin to those studies which say “one glass of wine gives you the benefits of a half hour at the gym” or smth. Completely misunderstood. Based in reality but strongly exaggerated.
It’s very different being un-discontented vs being “happy”
I agree that the name can be misleading because different people and different cultures view happiness differently. Life is good here, so we are content. But I disagree that we aren’t happy too, we’re just happy with fairly little. Some nice peace and quiet at the summer cabin, good sauna, that’s happiness.
I was actually wondering about that. Finland keeps getting this high ranking, so at what point do the Finnish people feel obligated to maintain that reputation when they answer these surveys? For at least a few people, I’d imagine it becomes a small point of pride.
There’s been actually a huge counter-reaction to this, with people rushing to say how the ranking must be bullshit. I’d imagine that at least outweighs that potential pride effect. It was PISA we used to cherish.
I’m curious about what might have changed. Has there been a quality of life change or a perceptual change?
I’m convinced Finns have just found a way to troll this somehow. Not that Finland isn’t great and all, but it just makes more sense.
According to the other comments, they ask “How are you?” ans the response is “eVeRyThInG Is gReAt” and this gets written down as a 5/5 on the happiness scale.
No, it’s because things are all things considered pretty good here, so people say “can’t complain”. Things overall are pretty good. Some understand happiness as being giddy about life but what this ranking more about is how content you’re with your life and when things are overall alright, it’s easy to be content.
The happiness thing is misleading since what it means varies a lot culture to culture.
“can’t complain”
That would never work around here. We complain about everything. And then we’ll complain how much everybody is complaining. Our happy state is complaining.
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.
