No one can be happy all the time – they say that it takes sadness to appreciate happiness, after all – but there’s one country in particular where, for the eighth year in a row, your chances at happiness are a little better than everywhere else.
Finland has just claimed the crown as the world’s happiest country yet again, according to the UN-sponsored World Happiness Report.
After evaluating six major factors (GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom, social support, generosity and perceptions of corruption), the vast, beautiful Nordic nation came out comfortably in first place, with a score of 7.736 out of 10.
Denmark, Iceland and Sweden come in second, third and fourth place, which is the same order as 2024’s ranking, but what is it about Finland which makes its happiness so consistent?
Well, we went to find out. ’s Scandinavia expert Laura Hall ventured to Finland to suss out what the locals do to stay happy in the winter months, and there are five key practices that they follow.
The first of these is eating well, with foods like herring, cheese and sea buckthorn all being staples of the country’s mood-boosting diet, and another is finding green space. Going big on colour, embracing activity and sweating it all out in a sauna are other methods she uncovered to keep spirits up – you can read all about it in our deep-dive here.
In Finnish culture, there’s also a concept known as ‘sisu’ which roughly translates to an attitude of resilience and strength, which probably has something to do with the country’s success at keeping upbeat despite challenging conditions for a lot of the year.
In fact, Finland is so confident in its wellness practices that last year (and the year before) it invited some lucky competition winners to come and try them out for free – read more about that here.
Did you see that this underrated European country was just named the world’s top wellness destination?
Plus: The ambitious new metro-style train that will stop at multiple European cities.
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