Why do Nordic countries always rank the happiest in the world?

From 2013 until 2024, every time the World Happiness Report (WHR) has published its annual ranking of countries, the five Nordic countries: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland have all been in the top ten.

But what exactly makes Nordic citizens so exceptionally satisfied with their lives? Data from the World Happiness Report, shows that their happiness is related to its good institutions, extensive welfare benefits, and low corruption, among other factors.

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However, happiness is a difficult concept to translate into numbers to draw up a ranking, but perhaps if we look at the factors mentioned by the World Happiness report, we can learn something from the Nordic countries.

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Updated annually, in the 2024 ranking there were 146 countries analyzed and according to this study, Finland is the happiest country on the planet, with 7,741 points.

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It seems obvious that the country that Santa Claus calls home is leading the happiest country ranking.

The Nordic country thus rises with this award for the seventh consecutive year. And close after it is Denmark who came in second place (7,583 points).

The third spot in the 2024 report went out to Iceland with 7,525 points, and the fourth to Sweden (7,344). Norway however, fell a bit behind compared to its Nordic counterparts this year, ranking in the 7th position with 7,302 points.

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But how can you establish which is the happiest country in the world? What criteria are followed and what elements are taken into account?

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To prepare the World Happiness Report, six similar variables are used in all countries: GDP per capita, generosity, freedom to make choices in life, perception of corruption, healthy life expectancy, and social support.

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To get the data, leading companies in the field of opinion polls, such as Gallup, collect information and opinions from all countries, which is the largest source of data for the report.

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In fact, the World Happiness Report gives a countries a way to evaluate themselves on the elements that they can improve to raise the perception of happiness of their citizens, as the report points out.

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Even global crises like the pandemic were reflected in the reports for several years. Global happiness data decreased during the pandemic, on the other hand, solidarity and social support skyrocketed.

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In the case of Nordic countries, for example, people tend to think that cold weather can’t make people happy. But the reality is quite different.

According to experts from the World Hapiness Report, people adapt to weather, so it probably doesn’t play a major role in increasing or decreasing Nordic happiness.

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The Nordic countries also have short days in the winter, and a common myth says they have high suicide rates. However, even though they used to have relatively high suicide rates in the 1970s and 1980s, these rates have declined sharply since those days, and are now close to the European average, according to Eurostat.

Nordic countries also have educational systems of the highest quality, excellent social services, a high level of freedom and equality, as well as generous citizens, which has resulted in them always being in the top 10 happiness rank.

Finland and Denmark dominate the 2024 World Happiness Report, followed by Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia.

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From positions 11 to 20 we find countries such as New Zealand, Costa Rica, Kuwait, Austria, Canada, Belgium, Ireland, Czechia, Lithuania and UK.

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In the other hand, the least happy places according to the 2024 report are Lesotho, Lebanon and Afghanistan.