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FOR A COUNTRY known for long winters and high taxes, Finland appears remarkably chipper. On March 20th it came top of the World Happiness Report, an annual UN-backed study, notching its eighth consecutive win ahead of 146 other countries. Not far behind it were Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. What makes the Nordics so happy?
The World Happiness Report is more a study of life satisfaction than smiles and laughter. It is based on a survey by Gallup, a pollster, where participants are asked to rate their lives out of ten. Finns are not known to gloat (or, for that matter, smile much). But in the latest survey they said their lives were a solid 7.7 on average—well above the global country average of 5.6. At the very bottom of the ranking, people in war-torn Afghanistan rated their lives just 1.4 out of ten.
Various other organisations have found the Nordics to be some of the most stable, progressive and safe countries in the world. They dominate the high positions in The Economist’s glass-ceiling index, which measures the role and influence of women in the workforce. Deaths of despair, including suicides and unintentional overdoses, are quickly decreasing in the region, albeit from a historically high baseline (life-evaluation scores alone do not capture all of the factors that can lead to deaths of despair).
The Nordics are also some of the wealthiest countries in the world per person, which typically has a significant effect on life satisfaction (see chart 2).
On this measure countries in Latin America also stand out, reporting happier lives than their incomes would otherwise suggest. These countries have also outperformed the Nordics in other studies of happiness, such as how often people laugh or feel a sense of enjoyment. The researchers offer a possible explanation. They found that eating with people, compared with eating alone, was a surprisingly strong indicator of subjective wellbeing—as statistically significant as income and employment status. That holds true even when accounting for other factors, such as age and education.
Latin America is a “global leader” in meal-sharing, say the authors. People across the region reportedly eat around nine meals per week with friends or family. (In South Asia it is fewer than half of that.) This might mean they are better connected and less lonely than their peers elsewhere. Indeed, across the world the study found that measures of social support are more closely linked to how people rate their lives than GDP per person.
This might also explain why happiness in America and some other rich countries is falling (see chart 3). Americans increasingly eat alone, live alone and—when given the choice—work alone. In one survey 18% of young adults in America reported that they did not have anyone that they felt close to (although there are signs that the relentless increase in mental-health problems among young Americans has stalled or even gone into reverse).
In many other countries, too, an erosion of meaningful connections is leaving people feeling lonely and glum. But in Finland, alone time is actually cherished. Finns retreat to their mökki (country cottages) for deliberate solitude—often in a sauna.■