Finland is the happiest country in the world for the fifth consecutive year: What makes a country happy?

For the fifth year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world, with their fellow Nordic countries follow closely behind. Denmark takes second place, Iceland in third, Sweden in seventh and Norway in eighth. The United States lands in 16th place in between Canada (15th) and the United Kingdom (17th). So what makes a country happy? How can you tell which are the happiest?

The World Happiness Report, or WHR, is data gathered from a variety of sources but most notably the Gallup World Poll which surveys about 150 countries each year. The WHR then uses the data to give each country a score in categories like life expectancy at birth, GDP per capita, social support, perception of corruption, generosity, positive affect, negative affect and freedom to make life choices.

The Influence of COVID-19

The poll in recent years has been majorly influenced by the effect of COVID-19. The World Happiness Report was able to track that with the rise of COVID cases, happiness levels declined in the population of mainland China in 2021.

However, the effects of COVID on happiness levels were not all negative. According to one of the organization’s founding members John Helliwell, there have “been very large increases in all the three forms of benevolence that are asked about in the Gallup World Poll,” he said, speaking to CNN. Instances of helping a stranger, donating to charity and volunteering, all rose in the years following the start of the pandemic. Compared to pre-pandemic statistics, these numbers have risen 25%. Data also differs in the first year of the pandemic compared to the following year; the worry and stress category in 2020 came in at 8%, while in 2021 it fell to 4%. “I think part of that is people knew a little more what they were dealing with in the second year, even if there were new surprises,” Helliwell said.

Highest and lowest scores:

GDP per capita measures a country’s monetary output per person, taken from the World Development Indicators and released by the World Bank. Of the surveyed countries Luxembourg scored the highest and Yemen scored the lowest.

Healthy life expectancy at birth is calculated based on data from the World Health Organization. Of the surveyed countries Singapore scored the highest at 77.1 years and Chad scored the lowest at 48.1 years old. 

Social support uses the Gallup World Poll’s question: “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?” Of the surveyed countries Iceland scored the highest and Rwanda scored the lowest.

Freedom to make life choices uses the GWP’s question: “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” Of the surveyed countries Norway scored the highest and Afghanistan scored the lowest.

Generosity uses the log GDP per capita along with GWP’s question: “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?” Of the surveyed countries Malaysia scored the highest and Greece scored the lowest.

Perception of corruption is used by an average of two questions from the GDP: “Is corruption widespread throughout the government in this country or not?” and “Is corruption widespread within businesses in this country or not? In countries where data on political corruption is missing, GWP used business corruption instead. Of the surveyed countries Croatia scored the highest and Singapore scored the lowest.

Positive affect measures the responses of laughter, enjoyment and doing or learning something interesting the previous day. Of the surveyed countries China scored the highest and Afghanistan scored the lowest.

Negative affect measures the responses of worry, sadness, and anger of the previous day. Of the surveyed countries Afghanistan scored the highest and Taiwan scored the lowest.

While not always being at the top, Finland scored high marks in each category (except negative affect) which allowed them to be the happiest country of 2022.

The happiest countries of 2022

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Switzerland

5. Netherlands

6. Luxembourg

7. Sweden

8. Norway

9. Israel

10. New Zealand

11. Austria

12. Australia

13. Ireland

14. Germany

15. Canada

16. United States

17. United Kingdom

18. Czechia (Czech Republic)

19. Belgium

20. France