HELSINKI | Finland was named the “happiest country in the world” for the fourth consecutive year on Friday, in a happiness ranking dominated by European countries where the impact of COVID-19 has been surprisingly mixed.
With a score of 7.84 out of 10, the Nordic country is ahead of Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands, newcomers to the top 5 of the latest edition of the “World Happiness Report”, an annual sponsored study. by the United Nations.
The study, published since 2012, mainly uses Gallup polls asking residents about their own level of happiness, crossed with GDP and assessments regarding the level of solidarity, individual freedom and corruption, to arrive at a score out of ten points. .
Germany is in 13th place, Canada comes 14th, the United Kingdom 17th, the United States 19th, France 21st. Among the great powers, Brazil is in 35th place, Japan 56th, Russia 76th and China 84th, according to the official ranking of about 150 countries, which weights the data of the last three years.
Europe largely dominates the top 10, which also includes Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg and Austria. The only non-European guest: New Zealand, in ninth place.
If the measurement of “happiness” is largely subjective and the method of the report is debated, the latter has established itself as one of the thermometers of global well-being in recent years.
The ranking also makes it possible to designate the “least happy country on the planet”: Afghanistan, with a score of 2.52, ahead of Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Botswana and Lesotho.
India is the lowest ranked Great Power, at an unenviable 139th place.
In Africa, the best ranked country is Congo Brazzaville, at 83rd place. In Asia, it is Taiwan, 24th.
This year, the study was expanded to include some data to better measure the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Resilience to COVID?
The impact “is clear”, according to the study: comparing data for 2020 to past years, the study’s authors found a “significantly higher frequency of negative emotions” in about a third of countries.
But this effect is contrasted and less than what one might have imagined: more than twenty countries have seen this indicator evolve positively and “surprisingly there has not been, on average, a decline in well-being in the world. ‘people’s assessment of their own lives,’ said John Helliwell, one of the co-authors cited in the study.
“One possible explanation is that people see COVID-19 as a common and external threat which harms everyone and which has resulted in a greater sense of solidarity and empathy”, judges the expert.
But COVID-19 confirms that “we must aim for more well-being and not more wealth”, underlines another of the authors, Jeffrey Sachs.
Finland, again in the lead this year, is also one of the developed countries with the best record against COVID and the country has notably excelled “in measures of mutual confidence which have helped to protect lives during the pandemic”, according to the ‘study.
Despite its long winters and the reputation of its inhabitants, considered not to be very expansive, even lonely, the Nordic country with 5.5 million inhabitants enjoys a very high standard of living, efficient public services, a vast nature of forests and lakes. It is also very well ranked in terms of solidarity and in the fight against poverty and inequalities.
The Nordic countries have been raiding for a decade: before Finland, Norway won in 2017 and Denmark had long held the top spot.