Finland is again ranked the happiest country in the world. The US falls to its lowest-ever position
Finland is again ranked the happiest country in the world. The US falls to its lowest-ever position
Finns are the happiest people in the world, according to a new global report. The northern European country is leading the world in happiness for the eighth year in a row.
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.
The US shot itself in the foot and now it's pointed at it's face.
"I used to be happier like you. Then I took a Trump in the knee..."
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.
That Pledge of Allegiance shit really worked.
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.
How is Israel even in the top ten? They are truly detached from reality.
“Happiness isn’t just about wealth or growth — it’s about trust, connection and knowing people have your back,” said Jon Clifton, the CEO of Gallup. “If we want stronger communities and economies, we must invest in what truly matters: each other.”
Damn that was very well said
Going out without worrying about getting robbed, killed, eating food that's gonna upset your tummy because someone neglected health regulations, slipping on a turd on the sidewalk someone deliberately didn't clean up after their dog, overpaying for stuff, getting fucked by the government (be it taxes, inflation, stupid rules).
Yet politicians getting paid in cold hard cash for approving overpriced shit so some wealthy fuck can fill his pockets even more.
We could constructing a Dyson sphere if it wasn't for fuckers that siphon the money that could be used to improve everyone's life.
Well, the taxes we have here in Denmark are quite high. We either have the fourth highest rate of tax compared to GDP or the highest, depending on which source you go by. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_tax_revenue_to_GDP_ratio
The thing is just that taxes means that the money gets spent directly on improving the lives of the people who live here, instead of people having to buy stuff like health care through companies that skim off the top, and who uses the money you pay them to employ people who try to find ways to not help you.
Taxes helps ensure that everything runs efficiently. A healthier population who are more productive, infrastructure that prevents disruptions to business and daily lives alike, and ensuring that people don't have to resort to crime if they lose their job or get ill. Crime is another source of inefficiency that gets significantly reduced.
Everything helps ensure that the average person is in a much better state of mind, and mood is contagious - even those who pay the most benefit off of it, and pretty much everyone here agrees that it's money well spent.
In Danish politics, even the right wing would be considered leftists in the US - we have a lot of political parties (16 in parliament, with 4 of them being from the Faeroe Islands or Greenland).
Wealth is just the hoarding of imaginary credits representing the hours of other people's work.
"When the last tree has been cut down, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that one cannot eat money."
Destruction of our society and pollution of our only Earth for paper strips.
"They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them"
How shitty are things in India when...
US here.
I'm betting we'll be outright giddy this year compared to next year.
I don't think so. Next year being sad will be illegal.
What you don’t want to live in a Christo-fascist dictatorship with no eggs, and lots of measles, where you get sent to Guantanamo Bay for not retweeting Elon Musk’s or Trump’s latest Nazi rant?
I'd like to remind we're only 3 months in and that's the scenario we're looking at.
I don't have the imagination for what the country will look like by December.
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.
Can relate. Am I secretly a Finlandian?
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.
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.
meanwhile, in America...
"oooh, unhappiness? how dreadfully monetizeable!"
starts big pharma antidepressants corporation
Not that hard, just got to look up how Crassus did it.
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.
Must be nice to not worry about injuries bringing financial ruin like in the USA.
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.
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
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)
:(
The dining alone hits. The lack of community is palpable in corporate America.
I don't get how Finland managed to push Denmark to 2nd place?? 🤔
We have way more bacon and beer than they do. 🥓🥓 🍻🍻
Look I even had enough beer and bacon to share it with EVERYBODY on the internet!!Anyways congrats to our Finish brothers. 👍 😀
We all decided to lie on the questionnaire just to screw over you guys and especially Sweden.
My recollection of danish food was, you can have meat you like as long as it came from a pig. Wouldn't surprise me if the beer was similar.
Damn socialists with their happiness. If my neighbour is happy, it makes me mad /s
conservatives: "Socialism Bad!"
"Then why are socialist countries like Norway and Finland (and many similar countries) having a higher quality of life?"
conservatives: "That's not Socialism!"
"Great, why don't we switch to whatever that system is?"
conservatives: "😡😡😡"
You joke, but this is literally how the average American thinks.
I literally had that conversation.
Social democracy, not socialism (though in the same extended family)
I know, I was mocking the murican perspective.
It is like being a Nazi does not make you happy. Imagine that.
I dunno, man. Israel being 8th is pretty fucked up.
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.
I'm sure if they counted the Arab population in the calculation, it would be much lower.
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.
Can confirm: the Nazi bar sucks. They card you to leave.
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.
My paternal grandparents were both Finnish immigrants. Do I have a path to citizenship? Please say yes, I would like to leave the 4th Reich as soon as possible.
Oddly enough, our problem is that not enough good people are migrating in. But it's not trivial: https://www.infofinland.fi/en/moving-to-finland/non-eu-citizens
There are so few professional-level expatriates that processes are not well formed and bureocracy might hit you, but personally I welcome you here.
That's what you get when everyone has a sauna.
And yes, many homes have it and one thing my Finnish friend does is sauna up and then jump in the snow. That'll wake you up.
Understandable, especially with what's going on here.
I am American and can confirm I feel like this.
Serbia winning big with largest increase.
Any Serbians able to weight in on why?
And Canada appears to have reduced happiness, I suspect due in part to our proximity to the USA.
The United States is still at 24th, where do they rank amongst first world countries?
they kinda don't rank amongst 1st world countries
Dang, I just got ratioed 🫣
Presumably nr 24...
lmfao that's crazy
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.
It's easy to be content with life when things are overall pretty good. And Finns typically are happy with fairly little, so we rank high.
Like they just lie on the Gallup poll calls so they seem less suicidal?
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.
I thought Finland and Nordic countries were notoriously depressed all winter??
Well sure, but the summer actually makes up for it.
(Personally: I'm from Finland, have had depression with seasonal pattern. Winters aren't that bad, early/late winter sucks though. Psychochemically, because the day length is noticeably changing and sleeping patterns get disturbed. Socially, because all sidewalks and walking paths get really slippery no matter how much sand and gravel they put there and going outside gets a bit scarier.)
that's just the loganberries talking.
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.
Dining with other people can make you happy too. Not judging in any way, just saying it's a possibility and sometimes just being able to share shit can make things better.
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.
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"
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.
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.
Finnish people are emotionally stunted and don't even understand the concept of happiness.
I half agree with this. There's it's own kind of happiness in being stoic and staying to one self.
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 no way. It’s dark half the year and every Finnish people I met didn’t look happy at all, or at least they didn’t express it whatsoever.
If seasonal depression is the worst thing your citizens have to deal with, that's a pretty fucking incredible country imo.
Well, when you are as happy and content as Finland, there is no dark.
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.
