Happy first day of spring & international day of happiness.
Finland is the happiest country for the second year in a row according to the 2019 World Happiness Report by the UN just released today! This report is based on measuring how happy people are and why, and it is great to see that all the five Nordic countries are in the top 10 also this year and the happiest places on earth. In fact, the Nordic countries have been dominating the top spots in this report for all of the seven years it has been published and made a habit of swapping places on the top each year. Three of the region’s countries have been crowned in the past four years: Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Here is the full list of the top 10 happiest countries 2019;
(With the 2018 ranking in brackets)
1. Finland (1)
2. Denmark (3)
3. Norway (2)
4. Iceland (4)
5. The Netherlands (6)
6. Switzerland (5)
7. Sweden (9)
8. New Zealand (8)
9. Canada (7)
10. Austria (12)
The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. This year’s World Happiness Report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved over the past dozen years, with a focus on the technologies, social norms, conflicts and government policies that have driven those changes. Special chapters focus on generosity and prosocial behaviour, the effects of happiness on voting behaviour, big data, and the happiness effects of internet use and addictions.
“Over the seven years of World Happiness Reports, there has been a steady increase in the level and sophistication of reader interest. At first, readers mainly wanted to see how countries ranked. Now we see ever-increasing interest in using the happiness lens to help understand what makes for happier homes, schools, workplaces, and communities, and to use these findings to help make lives better everywhere.” – coeditor John Helliwell
The World Happiness Report was written by a group of independent experts acting in their personal capacities. Read the full report here.
// Photo credit: Ingrid Opstad
