Finland is starting to sound like a nirvana. A few months ago, it was聽,听topping the chart alongside its Nordic neighbours, which occupy five of the top six spots. And this was no fluke 鈥� Finland has now come first for nine years in a row.
Ostensibly, there are plenty of factors that ought to make people in Nordic countries less than content, not least the dingy weather and high taxes. Then again, there is a sense that these taxes really go somewhere, with residents reaping the rewards of investment into healthcare, education and transport. Plus, the low population density, massive forest coverage and access to lakes and coastlines all mean that even city dwellers are never too far from nature.
But how much confidence should we place in these global rankings? After all,听happiness聽is a slippery concept, and all sorts of factors 鈥� not least how different cultures understand what it means to be happy 鈥� could conceivably skew the results. To delve into these questions,听New Scientist聽spoke to economist and behavioural scientist聽 at the University of Oxford, the editor of the World Happiness Report. He explained how his work attempts to measure true happiness, why he believes Finland deserves its top spot and what the rest of us can do to bring a bit more joy to our everyday lives.
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Alexandra Thompson:聽How do you define happiness 鈥� an incredibly easy and straightforward question, I鈥檓 sure.聽
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve:聽It is a question that has been top of mind for philosophers for 2500 years, from Aristotle and beyond. I think there聽was聽a bit of a step change in the聽1980s, when psychologists聽started聽, which is, ultimately, how people feel about their lives. The long story short is we now bypass the philosophical debate and rather ask people directly: 鈥淎re you happy with your life?鈥澛燭hat means I鈥檓 not imposing a definition of what well-being is. Instead, I鈥檓 going straight to you and asking: 鈥淎re you leading a happy life in your own mind?鈥�
The 2026 World Happiness Report recently came out. How do you decide the rankings of different countries?
We use a survey that is part of the聽, which runs annually and covers almost 150 countries. In every country,听they have a sample of 1000 people at minimum, who聽represent聽it quite well in terms of gender, socioeconomic status, urban versus rural dwelling and so on.
We start with subjective well-being, asking people to visualise a ladder with 10 rungs, with the top rung being the best possible life you can imagine and the lowest rung the worst possible life you can imagine. We then ask: 鈥淲here do you think you stand today?鈥� That gives us a score from 0 to 10. This isn鈥檛 a measure of whether people are dancing in the streets or singing from the rooftops 鈥� it is a sense of contentment. The annual rankings are then based on a moving average over the past three years.
Then the science kicks in. We reverse-engineer the results to see what might explain the differences between countries using objective measures, like GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, whether people have friends they can rely on, etc. We also use surveys to measure things like generosity and whether people in these countries generally feel positive or negative emotions.
Nordic countries make up five of the top six spots in the report, whereas the US ranks 23rd and the UK ranks 29th. What are Nordic countries doing so right?
For one, they have high levels of economic productivity. But unlike many other high-income nations, wealth is more distributed, so income inequality is much lower than in places like the US. And we know, based on previous research, that greater .
The second point is that money gets distributed through a welfare state, which minimises economic anxieties and establishes social safety nets. Being made redundant or being unemployed will feel very different in the聽US聽versus Finland.
Then there鈥檚 also a notion of healthy life expectancy in these countries, which measures the years people can expect to spend in good health, not just lifespan.
What is most underrated is the importance of social ties. Our research correlates happiness with proxies like the number of shared meals you have a week and whether you have friends you can rely on in an emergency. People in these countries also have more time for family and friends than one might have in the UK or the US, where work devours most of our waking hours. Over in Denmark or Finland, work-life balance is taken much more seriously, so people actually have time for rich social lives.
They also have high levels of social trust. We see this through the 鈥渓ost wallet鈥� question, which asks: 鈥淚f you lost your wallet, what is the likelihood that you think you would get it back?鈥� We find that in Nordic countries, people expect wallets to be returned much more frequently than they do in other places. That feeds positively into their well-being.
How do we know if聽a聽high level of social trust causes聽greater happiness or is a consequence of it?
This is the chicken-and-the-egg problem, but it is actually both. If you are in an environment where there is lots of trust, that will drive your well-being. And when people are happy, they are more pro-social. Look at volunteering: people who volunteer are happier, and if you are happier, you are more likely to volunteer. It is a synergistic, dynamic relationship, with arrows going in both directions.
What sets Finland apart from other Nordic countries? It has taken the number one spot in the report for the past nine years.
I think there are two elements that set it apart. Finland has a small population in a vast country, and everyone seems to have a cabin on a lake somewhere in the woods. So, that connection to nature is very present, and it is well-documented that spending time outside enhances well-being. It improves mood, reduces stress and lowers blood pressure 鈥� the list goes on.
The fact that most people in Finland are content with their lives suggests they may be more down-to-earth than those in other Nordic countries. They aren鈥檛 wishing for the stars; they are pleased with what they have, and that positively influences their subjective well-being.
It is surprising that Finland ranks so high, given it has some of the shortest winter days in Europe. Have you looked into the effects of this?
While Finland may have some of the shortest days in the winter, that comes with the corollary of having some of the longest days in spring and summer. They have also turned the seasons into something special. So,听in the winter, they make their homes cosy, and then in the summer, Finland explodes with life聽and they take full advantage of their lakes and forests.
How do you account for cultural differences when interpreting these survey results? In Denmark, for instance,听,听whereas in the UK, there is the famous mantra 鈥渒eep calm and carry on鈥�.聽
In every culture, there are quirks and social psychologies around what is expected and what isn鈥檛. We try to get around these issues by taking a step back and asking people to evaluate their quality of life on a ladder. So, it is more holistic than just asking if they are happy.
There are subtle linguistic differences in how well-being is translated and interpreted across cultures, as well. But these linguistic differences aren鈥檛 drastic enough to overrule the variation across countries in terms of what constitutes a good life.
We have also evaluated聽聽and found that if someone moves to another country, it is surprising how quickly they adapt to聽its average happiness. So,听if somebody from the UK moves to Canada, they start slightly lower and then you see them pick up quite quickly towards the average in Canada, and you see聽that聽in the聽inverse direction as well.
So,听it isn鈥檛 just a case of cultural expectations. It shows that the environment in which people live matters a great deal.
Costa Rica came fourth in the report, which is the highest a Latin American country has ever ranked. It is a big improvement from its 23rd position the year before. What explains this jump?聽
If you look at the population indicators around health, life expectancy or GDP, Costa Rica is punching above its weight in terms of well-being. I suspect that is partly because of the strong social relations people have there. It shows that there is more to life than just wealth or GDP per capita.
Costa Rica actually ranked relatively high between 2012 and 2015, then fell for unknown reasons, and is now making its way back up. That may partly be because other countries have come down, but it also has political stability and a thriving ecotourism industry. It is impressive to see.
Based on your research into happiness, what are the biggest changes you would like to see to help people feel more content?
It varies hugely between countries. The biggest well-being bang for one鈥檚 buck comes through policy. In the UK, we think so much about physical infrastructure, and that is important, but what about social infrastructure? Can we invest more in communities and enable them to come together, whether that is through bridge clubs for older people or local football pitches for people out in the countryside?
I also think we could start redistributing the economic gains in productivity that come from new technologies, like AI, by having a four-day working week with five-day pay, for example. The World Happiness Report will look more closely at how effective this is in 2027. We are expected to do so much throughout a working day, but our brains are the same brains as those 1000 years ago, so people feel stressed and under pressure. There are several policies that could really improve well-being without costing the world.
Until such policies are in place, what can we as individuals do to feel more content, maybe by adopting some tips from Finland?
Invest in face-to-face relationships; meet people for lunch. We need to invest more in our social lives. This is a particular concern for people who work from home full-time. If you are a hybrid worker, try coordinating your time in-office so you are spending quality time with colleagues.聽Infrastructures like聽video call software聽are very helpful, but it seems to undermine face-to-face relationships. It is a knife that cuts both ways, and we need to be mindful of that.
