Finland has been voted the happiest country in the world for the past six years, according to the World Happiness Survey. This survey is based on the question of evaluation of life according to the Cantril scale.
Finland has been voted the happiest country in the world for the past six years, according to the World Happiness Survey. This survey is based on the evaluation of life question according to the Cantril scale:
Finland comes first, followed by Denmark and Iceland. The reason why Finns are happier than others is due to several factors, including less income inequality (especially between the highest and lowest salaries), high social support, freedom to make decisions and a low level of corruption.
The graph below shows the 44 countries for which there is data on happiness and income inequality, each represented by a colored dot. The vertical scale indicates average happiness, the horizontal scale income inequality.
The measure of income inequality used here is the Gini coefficient, as reported by the OECD. This is the highest rate recorded in each country for a year after 2010 up to the most recent year for which there is data. The graph shows the close relationship between these two measures. In general, when income inequality is greater, money matters more and people are less happy.
Finland also has other qualities that can help people feel happier. It has a very decentralized public health system and a very limited private health sector. This system is much more effective and efficient than some alternatives used in other countries. Public transport is reliable and affordable, and Helsinki airport is considered the best in northern Europe.
Un proverbe Finnish semble pertinent ici: Happiness is the place between lack and abundance (Le Bonheur est un lieu entre trop peu et trop).
Finland, Norway and Hungary have similar levels of income inequality, but people in Finland are, on average, happier. Why that ?
According to the Global Inequality Database, the tenth highest paid in Finland receives a third of all income (33%). This contrasts with the same group receiving 36% in the UK and 46% in the US. These differences may not seem large, but they have a huge impact on overall happiness, because there is far less left for others in more unequal countries – and the rich become more fearful. When a small number of people become much richer, this fear is understandable.
In 2021, a sociology professor suggested that people in Nordic countries seemed to be happier simply by having more reasonable expectations. However, this cannot explain why Finland is so different from Norway on the happiness scale.
All sorts of explanations are possible, including slight nuances of language and culture. There’s even now the question of whether this global survey is starting to introduce its own bias, as Finns now know why they’re being asked the question (they have further widened the gap with Denmark in the most recent survey) .
However, it is highly likely that having fairer schools in Finland, where one is likely to receive a good education no matter which school they choose, as well as a fairer school policy than the Norway (almost all Finns go to the nearest school) is also important. Likewise, a better housing policy with a wide variety of social housing and less precariousness, a healthcare system with waiting times that are the envy of the world – sometimes only a few days (even during the worst years of the pandemic) – and many other assets.
Finland ranks first, second or third in more than 100 global measures of economic and social success – better than Norway. And it has less money in total (and virtually no oil). The Finns could be forgiven for a little complacency (omahyväisyys).
Why is Hungary doing so badly despite having an income gap between its people only slightly wider than in Finland and Norway? One could argue that this is due to its political divisions. In 2022, the European Parliament suggested that “Hungary can no longer be considered a full-fledged democracy”.
Freedom is very important to people, as well as the freedom to live without fear, and this could also explain why Turkey and India have lower levels of happiness than their levels of economic inequality would predict.
By contrast, South Africa and China might be a little happier than their inequality levels would suggest. South Africa became a democracy in 1994, soon after Nelson Mandela was released, and many people remember the earlier period. The Chinese are not as fearful as is often thought in the West.
Most countries show very predictable levels of happiness (and many other things) from their levels of inequality. The UK sits right in the middle of what you would expect for one of the most economically unequal countries in Europe.
The graph above also shows that Israel (almost as unequal) is a bit happier than it should be – although it’s unclear if the sample taken into account includes all groups currently living under this regime. Additionally, this sample was taken in 2022, before the recent widespread protests in Israel.
The other country that stands out in the chart is Costa Rica, whose president said in 2019:
So what can the people of a country do if they want to be happier? The most important thing is to elect governments that will ensure that the country becomes more income equal. Second, it is crucial to ensure that social services – schools, housing and health care – are efficient and equitable. Finally, it is necessary to take into account the degree of freedom, to ensure that everyone is included in the surveys and to assess the level of fear felt by the population.
