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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.
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As a finn, I can confirm I’m the happiest person in the world for the whole week it’s sunny and doesn’t rain during the summer!
Suomen kesä on kaunis ja vähäluminen.
Also, if you make it through the darkness of November alive, you must have built so much mental resiliency that rest of the year is walk in the park regardless of what happens.
One of the problems with America is if you ask people on the street who’s the happiest country in the world, a good chunk will answer America and not believe this result. I’ve always said the problem with being #1 (or thinking you are) is that you don’t work very hard to improve.
One metric America leads the world in: self-delusion regarding its own performance in every area. How many people say America leads in math, science, health? Don’t get me wrong, in a lot of categories the US is top 20, but very few where we actually are #1. Until this attitude is fixed, we’re not going to see real improvement. RAH RAH RAH USA #1 is nice to whip up a crowd at a rally, but it’s not good for positive ongoing change.
This is a helpful way to break down Nationalism vs Patriotism. Nationalism being a delusional belief that we are the best, and Patriotism being a love for your country and fellow citizen and striving to be the best.
That Pledge of Allegiance shit really worked.
Wait till their government dump all public money on “defense”
Actually, the Finns already spend 2.4% of their GDP on defense, making them one of the highest defense spenders in Europe (relative to GDP). And they’re famously very well prepared for wartime scenarios.
Turns out sharing a border with Russia makes military spending look very appealing.
Just a heads up that I have the person you replied to tagged as “Russia shill,” in case their strangely aggressive comments about Finland made you wonder.
They are one of the highest spenders already and are planning on spending more. Dumping even more public money on war will make everyone happier wait and see…
We are “dumping” it to our defence from what I’ve understood. If the war we would “dump” it to was the one where Ukraine defends itself against Russian attack, then yeah that seems like a good cause.
Finland isnt ”happy” but less miserable than other countries. Though our current gov is cutting from the poor and education etc to make economy numbers look better. Worse times are coming.
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.
I’d move back to Europe and live there but I’m too worried about Russia.
Distance will not provide you any additional safety when the nukes start flying anyway. Come back and your last time here with us.
Serbia winning big with largest increase.
Any Serbians able to weight in on why?
It is like being a Nazi does not make you happy. Imagine that.
I dunno, man. Israel being 8th is pretty fucked up.
Maybe it’s more of a oh shit I have to appear happy with everything or the Israel gestapo will get me kind of thing. The human element on these things means there’s always some amount of bending the truth or out right bullshit in the data they use for this.
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 jewsbe 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.
There’s substantial Israelis who aren’t calling for genocide. But it’s like the US after 9-11 and they’ve mostly gone into hiding because the right-wing media presence is so overpowering and successful on the “with us or against us” message.
If you had a territory where you could sort mostly the wealthy people into one “country” and mostly the poor people into another “country”, you could make one really happy and one really sad country.
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.
Can relate. Am I secretly a Finlandian?
Thats hilarious. I love that about finnish people, its a no bullshit country. Say what you mean, do what you say.
I wonder which US state most closely resembles this. Probably in the NE
Minnesota and Upper peninsula could be closest
Many Finnish people historically immigrated to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Iron Range of northern Minnesota to work in the mining industry; much of the population in these regions is of Finnish descent.
A lot of Mainers or northern New Englanders are like that too. My wife things the North Michiganders talk a lot compared to Mainers.
Oh that’s what we got wrong in Iceland, we should’ve kept that red line out of our flag!
The US shot itself in the foot and now it’s pointed at it’s face.
Back in 1960, the US minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average US home was $11,000.00
In ‘Hell’s Angels’ Hunter Thompson had a chapter about the economics of being a biker/hippie/artist circa 1970. Six months of a full time Union job as a stevedore paid enough for a biker to hit the road for two years. A part time waitress could afford to support herself and her musician boyfriend.
Of course people were happy here.
You know what hilarious?
There’s a sub minimum wage in America for people that earn tips (minimum of 30$ in tips a month), youths, and the disabled.
Sub minimum wage is a whopping 2.13$
That is the sickest thing, and the major reason tipping is such a problem in the States. Honestly, any establishment that runs on this sub-minimum wage platform deserves to go under. Next to prison labor and immigrant labor, this is the most demeaning way to live.
We are the happiest because we don’t give a fuck. Today I took my bike to work and slipped on some ice. Hurt my back a bit. What I did was yell “PERKELE!” and just go on my merry way. Work was shit but what can you do.
Best day of my life.
It’s easy to not give a fuck based on your own material conditions.
Today I took my bike to work
Damn, I have to sit in about 8 hours of traffic per week for a commute to work. Doesn’t leave much time for exercise, you know, like bicycling.
sigh
The city I live in has the greatest bike lanes in the country. I can bike to work through the year, even in very snowy winter. It’s great.
Oulu?
Must be nice to not worry about injuries bringing financial ruin like in the USA.
It’s great. Universal healthcare is the way to go fellas. US healthcare system is a scam.
I spent a night in the ER, had some tests done, puked on the CT scan machine, got some meds, and the most expensive part of that trip was the taxi home.
I know people that have had to take an Uber instead of an ambulance because of the costs.
sounds like an average Finnish weekend.
Any culture built on keeping yer yap shut is always bound to have less trouble. My Finn friend just nodded in agreement. Haven’t heard him speak a full sentence in years…
He sounds like the best friend ever.
I love people from Finland.
You are all like seals, letting the bad vibes roll off your back.
Also, always nibbling on fish.
Fish is more of a Norwegian thing, but I’ll allow it.
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.
