7 times in a row: Finland retains ‘happiest country in the world’ label

Scandinavia is overall the happiest global region

The 2024 World Happiness Report is out and once again Finland stands at the top. This is the seventh year in a row that the Nordic country has taken the crown as having citizens, who are the happiest and the most satisfied with their lives.

The UN report has been regularly released on 20 March, since 2012, to mark the International Day of Happiness. Looking at the top 5 spots in the ranking, which forms part of the annual report, it becomes clear that, as a global region, Scandinavia has affirmed its spot as a place of happiness even more compared to the previous year.

Denmark (2nd), Iceland (3rd) and Sweden (4th) are all in that prestigious club, with Norway (7th) trailing not too far behind.

What’s Finland’s recipe for happiness?

The report looks into six different variables: GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

And you find out Finland’s pretty rich in all of those things, like wallets being returned if they’re dropped in the street, people helping each other day in and day out, very high quality and universally distributed health and education opportunities — so everyone more or less comes out of the starting gate the same,” explains John Helliwell, emeritus professor of economics at the Vancouver School of Economics, speaking to CNN.

The World Happiness Report is based on surveys that ask respondents to rate their current life on a scale between 0 to 10, with a score of 10 for the best possible life and 0 for the worst. The ranking is based on the average of responses over the past three years. For the first time, this year’s ranking includes separate age categories, which showed that younger people today are less happy than older generations.

And this year, Finland gives you the chance to sample the very things that make its people happy by offering an all-expenses-paid happiness master course in June.