Is Finland Really The Happiest Country On Earth?
Finland was recently declared the happiest country on earth. The country (like many others) is also facing a youth mental health crisis.
How does this go together? And what is the reason for this seeming contradiction?
By now, you have probably heard of the reports of Finland being ranked the “happiest country on earth”, as it has been in numerous headlines over the past two weeks. But have you ever asked yourself how “happiness” is being measured in this report and what makes Finland the no. 1 country? If you look a little deeper, you come to find that the reality might be a little more complex than the headline.
Last week, my sister (who currently lives in Helsinki) sent me this article by Business Insider, titled “Finland is the world’s happiest country, but Finns say we’re confusing happiness with something else”. In it, the author — Beatrice Nolan — asks Finns how they are thinking and feeling about the much cited World Happiness Report, which declares Finland to be the happiest country on earth for the seventh consecutive year. She also speaks to different mental health experts and advocates living in Finland. According to them, Finns don’t view themselves as exceptionally happy people, in fact the country can be quite pessimistic. One advocate also points to the mental health crisis that is hitting Finnish youths particularly hard — like in many other parts of the world.
Apart from the voices in the article, my sister’s immediate circle of friends and acquaintances living in Helsinki were sharing a similar sentiment. There seems to be this interesting phenomenon where the world believes Finland is the happiest country on earth, whereas Finns themselves don’t see themselves as particularly happy. Where does this disparage come from?
To understand this phenomenon, we first have to understand how happiness is measured in the World Happiness Report.
Problem 1: How is “happiness” being measured?
I got curious about these contradictions and the stark contrast between the notion of Finland as the happiest country and my personal experiences in Finland and with Finns. And I dug a little deeper into the actual report on happiness…
For the research of the report (and the final ranking), data is taken from the Gallup World Poll, a worldwide survey that asks people to rate their lives on an imagined ladder measuring the best and worst possible life for them — respondents score their own lives on a scale of 0 to 10. Individuals were asked to rank their life and their “life satisfaction” regarding different areas of their life. The word “happiness” is not included in the questionnaire.
Life satisfaction and happiness (or positive mental health) are two distinct concepts. Just from a personal perspective — as someone who has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) in her early twenties — you can be satisfied with your life while simultaneously suffering from a mental illness, like depression or anxiety. Sure, “World Happiness Report” sounds better than “Life Satisfaction Report”, but I think these details matter and I can understand the frustration some young Finns feel when the report seems to dismiss their experiences.
The definition of happiness
Perhaps a broader challenge in this context is the fact that happiness does not have a clear, agreed upon definition. Oxford English Dictionary defines “happy” as “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment”. Happiness, therefore, is a state, not a trait — instead of a long-lasting, permanent feature or personality trait, it is a fleeting, changeable state. And happiness is equated with feeling pleasure or contentment, meaning that happiness is not to be confused with joy, ecstasy, bliss, or other more intense feelings.
By reducing the assessment to “life satisfaction” the World Happiness Report can not accurately capture actual happiness. But maybe that is not the point. Maybe the point of the report is to give an idea about where life should make society the happiest (or most satisfied). Maybe the point is to show the disparages between no. 1 and no. 150, not celebrate no. 1 as the winner. As Gallup puts it: “While the rankings get the headlines, the trends reinforce why it is important to keep asking people how they feel, and to keep digging deeper.”
Problem 2: The devil is in the details
As I investigated further, I found out that even the database where the World Happiness Report takes their data from — Gallup —states that Finland is not really the happiest country. While Gallup is also using the word “happiness” in their article, they clarify that Finland is not the happiest country for all age groups. If you’re aged under 30 or over 60, Finland no longer ranks no. 1 on the life satisfaction ranking. Young people are not being considered in the headlines celebrating Finland as happiest country.
Finnish adolescents’ mental health crisis
Research during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns over the poor mental health of youths and adolescents. According to several reviews and meta-analyses, the mental health of youths has deteriorated during the pandemic, particularly in terms of increased anxiety and depression symptoms. However, it should be noted that already during the last two decades prior to the pandemic, Finnish adolescents’ psychological and somatic health complaints (e.g., depression and headaches) had increased.
In 2023, Gustafsson et al. supported previous research by confirming that social support and self-rated health has a stronger effect on mental well-being than demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. So the focus of the happiness report might be off, focusing only on socioeconomic factors in determining happiness.
Gustafsson et al.’s research results show the importance of social support and self-rated health for mental health outcomes among adolescents. They also highlight how some specific factors assisted the adolescents in coping with the existential health-related threat. Namely, they found that the role of health literacy (e.g., having knowledge on health issues and the ability to seek and access health-related information) in mental health has increased during the pandemic, as this was a key factor associated with a better health profile. While Finland’s recovery from Covid and response to mental health related crises could be seen as a model for other countries, there is still much more to do, even in the “world’s happiest country”.
Conclusion
The point I am trying to make is that we shouldn’t compare ourselves, our country or the ranking in the World Happiness Report. Sure, we can acknowledge that Finland’s social safety net, investment into education and work-life-balance standards are something to look up to or even use as a model for our country. But let’s not glamourise the reality to a point where we forget that Finns also have to live through a five month long, dark, and cold winter that is leading to increased prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and other mental health related issues.
Sometimes — I would even argue, almost always — we need to go deeper than the headlines. Life is more complex than a single sentence headline. And classifying a whole country as “the happiest” or “the unhappiest” might not only be misleading but also convey a reality that dismisses the actual experience of the society in that country.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments. Do you think the World Happiness Report is useful or is it simplifying a complex topic too much?
Thank you Savija, for inspiring me to write this post.
Sources and further reading: Business Insider, “Finland is the world’s happiest country, but Finns say we’re confusing happiness for something else”, https://www.businessinsider.com/finland-happiest-country-in-world-happiness-report-rankings-rolls-eyes-2023-6, last accessed 21 March 2024. Gallup, https://news.gallup.com/poll/612125/happiest-country-earth.aspx, last accessed 21 March 2024. Gustafsson, J., Lyyra, N., Jasinskaja-Lahti, I. et al. Mental health profiles of Finnish adolescents before and after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 17, 54 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-023-00591-1.Positive Psychology, "What is happiness and why is it important?", https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-happiness/, last accessed 26 March 2024. World Happiness Report, https://worldhappiness.report/, last accessed 21 March 2024. OECD iLibrary, https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/89109c81-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/89109c81-en, last accessed 26 March 2024.