Finland maintained its position on the top of the United Nations’ World Happiness Report for the second time in a row.
The report was published on March 20, United Nations World Happiness Day. It evaluated 156 countries based on six categories for well-being, including income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.
Freezing cold winters and excessively long dark hours aside, Finland is the happiest place to live in, considering access to nature, safety, affordable childcare, free education and heavily subsidized healthcare.
Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria made up the top 10 in the list. Before Finland, three other nations — Norway, Denmark and Switzerland — have each led the list in previous years.
The United States dropped from 14th place in 2017 and 18th place in 2018 to 19th in 2019. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, associated this trend with growing addiction in the U.S.
“This year’s report provides sobering evidence of how addictions are causing considerable unhappiness and depression in the U.S.,” Sachs reportedly said. “Addictions come in many forms, from substance abuse to gambling to digital media. The compulsive pursuit of substance abuse and addictive behaviors is causing severe unhappiness. Government, business, and communities should use these indicators to set new policies aimed at overcoming these sources of unhappiness.”
Other less happy nations among superpowers are Britain which got the 15thplace, Germany – 17th, Japan – 58th, Russia – 68th and China – 93rd. According to findings, the tope least happy countries are South Sudan, Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.
