Finland has been declared the happiest country in the world for eighth consecutive year, according to the Happiness World Fair 2025 published on Thursday.
The study, conducted in collaboration with Gallup Analysis and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, was published by the University of Oxford’s prosperity research center, which asked people to rate their lives on a scale from 0 to 10 – the highest possible life.
Top 10 of happy countries
The top four is complemented by Scandinavian countries, namely Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. Costa Rica and Mexico entered the top ten for the first time.
The classification of countries is based on average three years of these scores. Top 10 is:
- Finland
- Denmark
- Iceland
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Costa Rica
- Norway
- Israel
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
On the other hand, the United Kingdom and the United States retreated to the list in the 23rd and 24th place respectively. Greece was in 81st place. Afghanistan was again classified as the most unhappy country in the world (location 147). Sierra Leone in West Africa is the second most unhappy, followed by Lebanon, who ranks 3rd from the end.
According to researchers, in addition to health and wealth, some factors that affect happiness are simple, such as sharing meals with others or having someone you can rely on and the size of the household. In Mexico and Europe, for example, a household of four to five foresees the highest levels of happiness, according to the study.
According to the findings, the belief in the kindness of others is even more linked to happiness than we thought. “Happiness is not just about wealth or growth – it has to do with confidence, connection and knowing that people support you,” said John Clifton, Gallup’s chief executive. “If we want stronger communities and economies, we must invest in what really matters: one another,” he said.
The example of lost wallet
For example, the report states that whether people believe that others will return a lost wallet is an important indicator of the overall happiness of a society.
According to the study, the Scandinavian countries are ranked top positions in both the expected and the actual return of lost wallets.
Overall, the researchers said that global data on how often people believe that a lost wallet will be returned, compared to how often this is true, they show that people are overly pessimistic about the kindness of their communities. The actual wallet returns, however, are about twice as much as people expect.
John F. Helliwell, an economist at the University of British Columbia and author of the exhibition, said that the purse experiment has shown that “people live much happier where they think people care about each other.” He added that the study showed that people are “overly pessimistic”, as wallets are much more often returned than foreseen.
Photos from beautiful Finland:
Source: protothema.gr