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Finland remains the world’s happiest country for the seventh consecutive year in the United Nations’ annual World Happiness Report, released on Wednesday.
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And the Nordic countries maintained their place in the brightest 10, with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden trailing Finland.
Afghanistan has suffered a humanitarian catastrophe since the Taliban took back control in 2020, leaving it at the bottom of the 143 countries surveyed.
For the first time since the report was released more than a decade ago, the United States and Germany have dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries, ranking 23rd and 24th respectively.
Costa Rica and Kuwait followed in the top 20 in 12th and 13th place.
read moreWorld Happiness Report 2024
The report noted that the happiest countries no longer include the world’s largest countries.
“Among the top 10 countries, only the Netherlands and Australia have populations of more than 15 million people. Canada and the United Kingdom are the only countries in the top 20 with populations of more than 30 million people.”
Afghanistan, Lebanon and Jordan experienced the sharpest decline in happiness between 2006 and 2010, while the Eastern European countries of Serbia, Bulgaria and Latvia reported the largest increases.
Happiness rankings are based on individuals’ self-assessments of life satisfaction, GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, corruption, and more.
growing inequality
Jennifer de Paola, a happiness researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, told AFP that Finns’ close connection to nature and a healthy work-life balance contribute significantly to their life satisfaction.
Additionally, Finns may have a “more attainable understanding of what success is in life,” compared to, for example, the United States, where success is often equated with financial gain, he said. Stated.
The Finns’ strong welfare society, trust in state authorities, low corruption, and free health care and education were also key.
“Finnish society is imbued with a sense of trust, freedom and a high degree of autonomy,” De Paola said.
This year’s report also found that in most (but not all) regions of the world, younger generations are happier than older generations.
In North America, Australia and New Zealand, happiness among the under-30s declined dramatically between 2006 and 2010, with older generations now happier than younger people.
In contrast, in Central and Eastern Europe, happiness increased significantly across all age groups over the same period, while in Western Europe, people of all age groups reported similar levels of happiness.
Happiness inequality is increasing in all regions except Europe, which the authors described as a “worrying trend”.
This increase was particularly pronounced among older people and in sub-Saharan Africa, reflecting inequalities in “income, education, health care, social acceptance, trust, and the presence of a supportive social environment at family, community, and national levels.” The authors say that. Said.
(AFP)
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