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Happiness ranking: Finland leads for seventh consecutive year while UK is on the decline 🇬🇧 🌎
Amidst the commotion of global affairs, there's a unique metric that assesses the collective mood of nations: the World Happiness Report.
Once again, Finland reigns supreme as the pinnacle of contentment, but sentiments are shifting within other nations.
In this year's findings, both the UK and the USA find themselves with unexpected declines in their happiness rankings, which suggests underlying societal problems.
Keep reading as we dive into the ever-changing landscape of global happiness. 👇
So, Finland emerges once again as the world's happiest country, maintaining its remarkable streak for the seventh consecutive year. Happiness scores are based on self-reported data over a three-year period, with Finland scoring 7.74 out of 10.
It seems to be a continuing trend that the nations of Nordic countries have peak happiness, at least compared to other countries, considering that four out of the five Nordic countries make up the top four happiest nations. In order: Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. The latter moving up two places from sixth place last year to fourth place this year, replacing Israel.
The last of the Nordic countries, Norway, comes in seventh place - still a decent ranking.
The latest report reveals concerning shifts in happiness levels for both the UK and the USA, as they move down the rankings. The UK moved down one place from 19th to 20th, which is not a drastic change. However, it still signals increased dissatisfaction among the nation (unsurprising since we were recently ranked second most miserable country in the world...).
While the UK drops one place to 20th, the stats across the pond are a bit more drastic, with the USA dropping eight places from 15th to 23rd.
Notably, this year's findings shed light on reduced happiness among younger adults across North America (as well as Europe).
As the world deals with ongoing conflicts and geopolitical tensions, the assessment of happiness provides good insights into the well-being of nations during ever-changing global landscapes.
Understandably, the battle-scarred country of Afghanistan ranks the lowest on the happiness scale, with a score of 1.7. Lebanon takes second most unhappy country most-likely for a similar reason, with a score of 2.7.
Equally, concerns have been raised over the declining happiness in Israel and Palestine amid ongoing conflicts. Israel does still score very high on the index though, only dropping one place from 4th to 5th (with a score of 7.34), compared to Palestine's position on the index of 103rd, with a score of 4.88.
Russia and Ukraine also see declines in happiness rankings since Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has dropped two places, now ranking 72nd in the global league table with a score of 5.78, while Ukraine has dropped thirteen places from 92nd to 105th with a new score of 4.87.
Lastly, Costa Rica returned to within the top 20 happiest countries after a three-year hiatus and Germany (like the USA) dropped out of the top 20 happiest nations for the first time.