HELSINKI: Finland was again the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row in the annual report published Wednesday (March 20) on World Happiness sponsored by the United Nations.
The Nordic countries or often called Scandinavia remain on the list of the 10 happiest countries.
Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway follow behind Finland, coming in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th respectively.
Afghanistan, which has been hit by a humanitarian disaster since the Taliban returned to power in 2020, remains at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed.
For the first time since the report was published more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany were not among the 20 happiest countries, ranking 23rd and 24th respectively.
Instead, Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 at 12th and 13th.
The report notes that densely populated countries are no longer among the happy countries.
Within the top 10 countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations of more than 15 million. In the top 20, only Canada and the United Kingdom have populations of more than 30 million.
The sharpest decline in happiness from 2006 to 2010 occurred in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan, while happiness rose sharply in Eastern European countries such as Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia.
Indonesia is ranked 80th, below neighboring countries Singapore (ranked 30th), Malaysia (ranked 59th) and Thailand (ranked 58th).
Jennifer De Paola, a happiness researcher at the University of Helsinki, told AFP that Finns’ engagement with nature plus a healthy, balanced work-lifestyle were the main causes of their life satisfaction.
A strong social security system, trust in the state, low levels of corruption, and free health and education systems are also key factors.
