Finland Again Tops The List Of The World's Happyest Countries, What Are The Positions Of Russia And Ukraine That Are Hit By War?

Finland. (Wikimedia Commons/Olga1969)

JAKARTA - Finland is again the world's happiest country for the sixth time in a row, according to the World Happiness Report ranking, which is largely based on the evaluation of life from Gallup World Poll.

The Nordic country and its neighboring countries, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, have excellent values in a variety of sizes including: healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support, low corruption, generosity in helping communities, as well as the freedom to make important decisions in life.

"Do they do things we expected we could see before and we could start doing? Or is there something unique about their climate and history that makes them different? And fortunately, from my point of view, at least the answer is the first," said John Helliwell, co-author of the World Happiness Report., reported CNN March 20.

In addition to the Nordic countries, the top 10 was filled by Israel, which rose to 4th place this year from 9th place last year. Netherlands (5), Switzerland (8), Luxembourg (9) and New Zealand (10). While on the list of the top 20 with countries such as Australia (12), Canada (13), Ireland (14), the United States (15) and the UK (19).

Although the same countries tend to appear in the last 20 years from year to year, there are newcomers this year: Lithuania. This Baltic country has continued to experience a significant increase over the past six years, from rank 52 in 2017 to rank 20 on the latest list.

"Basically this is the same story as what happened in Central and Eastern Europe," Helliwell, professor of emeritus at the Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia

Countries in these areas "may have normalized the post-1990 transition and ( FEEL) more solid with their new identities" over time, he said.

As for the lowest rank, there is Afghanistan's name ranked 137th. The level above it is Lebanon in 136th place. The average life evaluation in these countries is more than five points lower (on a scale of 0 to 10) compared to the 10 most happy countries.

Meanwhile, Russia's invasion of Ukraine made these two countries in the world spotlight, when the 2022 report was released. Despite the war hitting Ukraine, the evaluation of life in September 2022 remains higher than after the 2014 annexation, supported by a stronger sense of common goals, virtues, and trust in Ukraine's leadership," the report said. In this year's ranking, Russia is ranked 70th and Ukraine is ranked 92.

Interestingly, global happiness is said to have not been hit in three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation of life from 2020 to 2022 has been "very resilient," the report said, with the global average in line with three years before the pandemic.

"Even over these difficult years, positive emotions remain twice as many as negative emotions, and positive feelings of social support twice as strong as feelings of loneliness," Helliwell said.

The report, which is a publication of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, refers to global survey data from people in more than 150 countries.

Countries were given a happiness rating based on their average life evaluation for the previous three years, in this case 2020 to 2022.

The report, released on March 20, identified the happiest countries, those at the bottom of the scale of happiness and everything in between, plus factors that tend to lead to greater happiness.

March 20 is International Happiness Day, a day set by the United Nations that will mark its 10th birthday by 2023.