What the US can learn from the Nordic countries

[Admin]

The annual United Nations World Happiness Report released its 2020 edition today, revealing that the Nordic country is number one once again. Since the first report in 2012, only four countries have claimed the top spot: Denmark in 2012, 2013 and 2016, Switzerland in 2015, Norway in 2017, and now Finland in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The 2020 report ranked 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be, based on their evaluations of their own lives.

Finland came top by some margin, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. All the Nordic countries appeared in the top 10. The UK missed out on the top 10, coming in 13th place, while the US came in at number 18. “The World Happiness Report has proven to be an indispensable tool for policymakers looking to better understand what makes people happy and thereby to promote the wellbeing of their citizenry,” said Jeffrey Sachs, one of the report’s editors. “Time and again we see the reasons for wellbeing include good social support networks, social trust, honest governments, safe environments and healthy lives.”

Finland crowned world’s happiest country for third year running | The Independent