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.
Can relate. Am I secretly a Finlandian?
Oh that’s what we got wrong in Iceland, we should’ve kept that red line out of our flag!
“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.
You may need to examine your opinion of the role of taxes in a functioning country.
You’re right about corruption, though.
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”
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.
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.
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.
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. 👍 😀
🥓🥓Maybe🍻🍻, but we have 🍸vodka🍸 and russian drinking habbits. All the sad people are dead.
Oh so that’s the secret, I thought there was something fishy about this, very clever and well played. 😋
Many East European countries use the same strategy, but I’m guessing they don’t find a corpse as hilarious.
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.
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.
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
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?
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: “😡😡😡”
Social democracy, not socialism (though in the same extended family)
I know, I was mocking the murican perspective.
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.
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
Shoot, it sounds like they need to be living relatives. Ah well, have a sauna for me sometime. :(
https://www.infofinland.fi/en/moving-to-finland/non-eu-citizens/remigration-to-finland
”If you have Finnish ancestry or a close connection with Finland, you may be granted a residence permit in Finland on this basis. This means that you are considered a returnee (paluumuuttaja). Receiving a residence permit depends on the directness and closeness of your Finnish ancestry. No other reason, such as work or study, is required in order to receive the permit.”
Not an expert but I would imagine grandparents is considered pretty close and direct.
… time to find out how much old paperwork the family has stashed away!
And win the lottery to afford moving costs, but one step at a time.
If you find a job, and move here, you will gain permanent residency in 5-8 years. Jobs are listed here: https://www.workinfinland.com/en/open-jobs/
There is everything listed there.
There are so few professional-level expatriates that processes are not well formed and bureocracy might hit you, but personally I welcome you here.
How shitty are things in India when…
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.
meanwhile, in America…
“oooh, unhappiness? how dreadfully monetizeable!”
starts big pharma antidepressants corporation
