this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024
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The annual World Happiness Report has again ranked Finland and other Scandinavian countries the most cheerful nations on Earth. Costa Rica and Kuwait entered the top 20 in place of the United States and Germany.

Finland has remained the happiest country in the world for the seventh year a row with nordic neighbors SwedenDenmark and Iceland also retaining their places in the top 10, according to the annual World Happiness Report published on Wednesday. 

But rising unhapiness especially among young people has seen other Western countries drop down the UN-sponsored index, with the United States and Germany dropping out of the top 20 for the first time since the report's first edition more than a decade ago.

Taking their place were Costa Rica and Kuwait at 12 and 13 respectively, while Eastern European countries SerbiaBulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases in happiness.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, remained in last place.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I speak with Finns daily. Never once have I ever been under the impression that they are the world's happiest people. This is hilarious.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Finn here. It's OK, nothing to complain.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We can't complaint

- Russians

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I am not allowed to talk to you

  • North Koreans
[–] Viking_Hippie 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

That's because Finns don't express feelings. They have them, sure, they just don't express them 😉

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Unless drunk, then we are the most open and chatty people in the world

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Viking_Hippie 8 points 8 months ago

Or better yet: drunk in the sauna

[–] CosmicCleric 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Viking_Hippie 4 points 8 months ago

Yes, vulcan rally drivers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

I guess we just don't broadcast it as much. But life is good here so it's very easy to be at least content

[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago

No worries, our current right wing government will make sure this will never happen again. I apologize for the incident.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The Conservative take would be that Americans are unhappy because we are ambitious go-getters who are never satisfied.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Took the words right out of my brother’s mouth.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

[sigh] Oh, laddie, I remember when I was but a wee lad and satire was possible...

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Ukrainians are less happy than Iranians.

The full list (in reverse order, because the document is weird):

  1. Afghanistan (1.721)
  2. Lebanon (2.707)
  3. Lesotho (3.186)
  4. Sierra Leone (3.245)
  5. Congo (Kinshasa) (3.295)
  6. Zimbabwe (3.341)
  7. Botswana (3.383)
  8. Malawi (3.421)
  9. Eswatini (3.502)
  10. Zambia (3.502)
  11. Yemen (3.561)
  12. Comoros (3.566)
  13. Tanzania (3.781)
  14. Ethiopia (3.861)
  15. Bangladesh (3.886)
  16. Sri Lanka (3.898)
  17. Egypt (3.977)
  18. India (4.054)
  19. Jordan (4.186)
  20. Togo (4.214)
  21. Madagascar (4.228)
  22. Mali (4.232)
  23. Liberia (4.269)
  24. Ghana (4.289)
  25. Cambodia (4.341)
  26. Myanmar (4.354)
  27. Uganda (4.372)
  28. Benin (4.377)
  29. Tunisia (4.422)
  30. Kenya (4.470)
  31. Chad (4.471)
  32. Gambia (4.485)
  33. Mauritania (4.505)
  34. Burkina Faso (4.548)
  35. Niger (4.556)
  36. Pakistan (4.657)
  37. Morocco (4.795)
  38. Namibia (4.832)
  39. Ukraine (4.873)
  40. Cameroon (4.874)
  41. State of Palestine (4.879)
  42. Nigeria (4.881)
  43. Azerbaijan (4.893)
  44. Iran (4.923)
  45. Senegal (4.969)
  46. Turkiye (4.975)
  47. Guinea (5.023)
  48. Ivory Coast (5.080)
  49. Gabon (5.106)
  50. Laos (5.139)
  51. Nepal (5.158)
  52. Iraq (5.166)
  53. Georgia (5.185)
  54. Mozambique (5.216)
  55. Congo (Brazzaville) (5.221)
  56. Tajikistan (5.281)
  57. Albania (5.304)
  58. Hong Kong S.A.R. of China (5.316)
  59. Algeria (5.364)
  60. North Macedonia (5.369)
  61. South Africa (5.422)
  62. Armenia (5.455)
  63. Bulgaria (5.463)
  64. Indonesia (5.568)
  65. Venezuela (5.607)
  66. Colombia (5.695)
  67. Mongolia (5.696)
  68. Montenegro (5.707)
  69. Kyrgyzstan (5.714)
  70. Ecuador (5.725)
  71. Bolivia (5.784)
  72. Russia (5.785)
  73. Moldova (5.816)
  74. Mauritius (5.816)
  75. Dominican Republic (5.823)
  76. Peru (5.841)
  77. Jamaica (5.842)
  78. Libya (5.866)
  79. Bosnia and Herzegovina (5.877)
  80. Greece (5.934)
  81. Croatia (5.942)
  82. Bahrain (5.959)
  83. Honduras (5.968)
  84. China (5.973)
  85. Malaysia (5.975)
  86. Thailand (5.976)
  87. Paraguay (5.977)
  88. Hungary (6.017)
  89. Portugal (6.030)
  90. Vietnam (6.043)
  91. Philippines (6.048)
  92. South Korea (6.058)
  93. Japan (6.060)
  94. Cyprus (6.068)
  95. Kazakhstan (6.188)
  96. Argentina (6.188)
  97. Uzbekistan (6.195)
  98. Latvia (6.234)
  99. Slovakia (6.257)
  100. Brazil (6.272)
  101. Nicaragua (6.284)
  102. Guatemala (6.287)
  103. Italy (6.324)
  104. Malta (6.346)
  105. Panama (6.358)
  106. Chile (6.360)
  107. Serbia (6.411)
  108. Spain (6.421)
  109. Poland (6.442)
  110. Estonia (6.448)
  111. El Salvador (6.469)
  112. Romania (6.491)
  113. Taiwan Province of China (6.503)
  114. Singapore (6.523)
  115. Kosovo (6.561)
  116. Saudi Arabia (6.594)
  117. France (6.609)
  118. Uruguay (6.611)
  119. Mexico (6.678)
  120. Germany (6.719)
  121. United States (6.725)
  122. United Arab Emirates (6.733)
  123. Slovenia (6.743)
  124. United Kingdom (6.749)
  125. Lithuania (6.818)
  126. Czechia (6.822)
  127. Ireland (6.838)
  128. Belgium (6.894)
  129. Canada (6.900)
  130. Austria (6.905)
  131. Kuwait (6.951)
  132. Costa Rica (6.955)
  133. New Zealand (7.029)
  134. Australia (7.057)
  135. Switzerland (7.060)
  136. Luxembourg (7.122)
  137. Norway (7.302)
  138. Netherlands (7.319)
  139. Israel (7.341)
  140. Sweden (7.344)
  141. Iceland (7.525)
  142. Denmark (7.583)
  143. Finland (7.741)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Well, if my country was at war, I would not be happy either. Except for some reason, people in Israel.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It seems they're quite happy to commit genocide

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Religious fundamentalism is a helluva drug

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Yeah apparently they're happy with Mr Security leaving the door open and running a skeleton crew at the border on the 50th anniversary of the last Yom Kippur war.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Lmao I just looked at the post on Jerboa and it started a numbered list from 143, it should be counting down.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

I'll bet the Israel questionnaire wasn't mailed to Palestinians...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You would think, spending time here, that America is some hell scape where everyone is miserable and simply fighting to stay alive.

When according to this, Americans are among the happiest in the world.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Number 10.

UK is 20, Germany is 23.

I would think things are better in Germany overall, but they just have higher standards.

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[–] Tehdastehdas 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

Taiwan Province of China

Ewww. It's Taiwan, Republic of China #1! (ROC 1912 vs. PRC 1949)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I have been living in Botswana for the past two years, and I'm genuinely surprised where it is on this list. Yeah, people here don't have the greatest deal, but there's freaking universal healthcare here. The country has been extremely politically stable since independence. There's no way people are less happy here than those who are in active war zones.

[–] tributarium 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

How integrated are you into the local community? How well do you speak the local language? I'm a foreigner living abroad and I would never trust either my own perception of this place nor 99% of other foreigners' perceptions.

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[–] Fedizen 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

notably finland has one of the best education systems

[–] Carrolade 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I imagine that having something in recent history to compare yourself to has a significant impact. So, if there are people that have the USSR in their living memory, and then get to live free, they'll have a little more perspective on how much worse things could be.

Then an American with the 90s in living memory will recall what functional government that even had its budget in the green felt like.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Finland was never part of the Soviet Union. The highest-ranked country that was is Lithuania at 19th, although 18th-ranked Czechia was on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain

[–] Carrolade 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the correction. I was taking note of the highest increases being in former Warsaw Pact countries rather than the top 20.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Ahh, sorry, misinterpretation of your comment on my part

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (8 children)

i remember not suffering under the surveillance state.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

People have been talking about the loss of privacy for decades.

This Peanuts character first appeared in 1963. He's a little boy named '5' whose father changed the family's names to numbers after doing his income tax and being forced to provide tax payer ID, Social Security number, Zip Code, bank account number, and phone number.

https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/555_95472

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (8 children)

that doesn't make me feel any better about having governments and their constructs (corporations) looking over my shoulder.

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[–] bl4ckblooc 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Canada is ranked 58 for people under 30, yet 8 for over 60. It’s a nice place if you can make it that far!

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Those people probably saw their homes rise in value 10x over their lifetimes. They're not stuck renting shoeboxes for $2000 a month like the rest of us.

[–] Pilferjinx 9 points 8 months ago

Yeah my parents are sitting pretty from buying just after the 2008 crash. It's too bad I was busy being a kid, there's no hope for me now.

[–] Yawweee877h444 15 points 8 months ago

Over 60 has all the wealth, obviously they're happy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

It's because they have no natural predators. Everyone else running scared

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Taking their place were Costa Rica and Kuwait at 12 and 13 respectively, while Eastern European countries Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the biggest increases in happiness.

Afghanistan, plagued by a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban regained control in 2020, remained in last place.

Previous research into wellbeing often found happiness to be highest in childhood and early teens, before falling in middle age and then rising again upon retirement.

"Youth, especially in North America, are experiencing a mid-life crisis today," said University of Oxford economics professor and report editor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve.

He associated the increasing unhappiness among western youth with a range of factors including the negative aspects of social media, increased polarization over social issues, and economic inequality that made it harder for young people to afford their own homes than in the past.

"Finnish society is permeated by a sense of trust, freedom, and high level of autonomy," she said, adding that Finns' strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low levels of corruption and free healthcare and education were also key.


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