Less than a three-hour flight away from the UK, on average, is a nation which has been dubbed the “happiest” country in the entire world for the seventh year running. The title was granted based on factors including social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and the absence of corruption – all of which Finland scores highly for.
The World Happiness Report is conducted every year and is constructed based on polls of people living in each destination around the world. Residents provide self-assessments of their own lives by placing themselves on the Cantril Scale, which sees people rank their happiest between 10, the happiest you can be, and 0, the least happy you can be.
The World Happiness Report then measures and investigates several factors that could correlate with the variations in the average happiness of each country’s population.
Finland made its way to the top of the scale based on high-scoring factors such as generosity, income, freedom of choice and life expectancy. For example, in Finland, residents said they thought it would be “highly likely” to see lost possessions returned.
Finland was also recently named the best place in the world to retire in. The study conducted by We Buy Any Home awarded Finland the coveted top spot on its best countries to retire in, based on factors including healthcare, pollution and happiness index.
“Finland emerged as the best country to retire, boasting a perfect score of 100, thanks to its outstanding healthcare system, low pollution levels, and high happiness index.
“Malaysia (96.1) and Belgium (95.7) secured the second and third spots with their affordable living costs and excellent healthcare services,” said the report.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the World Happiness Report 2024, the UK did not make it into the top 10 list.
The UK sits in 20th place on the World Happiness Report list, beaten by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Austria, Canada, Belgium, Ireland and Lithuania.
However, the UK did rank more highly in terms of “happiness” on the scale than neighbouring nations such as France and Germany. The US currently sits in 23rd place on the 2024 list.