Finland is the happiest country in the world for the second year running according to the World Happiness Report 2019.
Overall, the Arctic countries do well in the global happiness rankings. Six Arctic Council member states are among the top ten. Denmark is in second and Norway in third place. Iceland is ranked number four, Sweden number seven and Canada number nine.
The World Happiness Report is an annual publication of UN’s sustainable development solutions network. This year, it ranks 156 countries according to their happiness levels. The report contains data according to various perspectives of national happiness and their ranking based on the analysis of people’s well-being and living standards.
The annual data for Finland have continued their modest but steady upward trend since 2014, which puts Finland significantly ahead of other countries in the top ten. Denmark and Norway have also increased their average scores. Globally, happiness scores have dropped during the past ten years.
Photo (c) Arto Vitikka/Arctic Centre