In a world filled with negativity, one needs to find happiness. And happiness is a difficult thing to measure and the UN finds it hard to determine the happiness of a country.
Every year, the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network publishes its World Happiness Report—a study that examines the connections between happiness and development.
Around 1,000 people in each U.N. member state rate their quality of life on a scale of 0 to 10, while researchers extract data from six areas: GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support, trust, corruption, perceived freedom to make life decisions, and generosity.
And every year the World Happiness Report comes in and we will get to know which are all some of the world’s happiest countries. Here is the list of the World’s Happiest Countries.
10) Luxembourg
With a population of around 600,000 Luxembourg, a country in Europe occupies the 10th position in the Happiness report where this small country offers a high salary and strong social security which helps its citizens after their retirement.
Apart from being a cash-rich nation, Luxembourg has a good work-life balance which is probably one of the reasons why it made a cut to the top 10.
9) Austria
Austria offers a good work-life balance, has a high score in life expectancy, and has a high GDP per capita. With a population of 9,000,000+, Austria is the best place for biking and a good bike ride along the cities and countryside of Austria is worth it for its beautiful nature and greenery.
8) New Zealand
According to a leading travel magazine, Conde Nast Traveller a post published where one of the readers of the magazine said Kiwis are a warm, welcoming bunch and yes New Zealand beat its arch-rival Australia in the list of top 10’s in World Happiest Countries.
According to UN research, the countries’ happiness quotient comes with work satisfaction and also the countries’ vast natural wealth.
7) Sweden
Sweden along with Nordic countries shares high GDP per capita helps it to be on the list of the world’s happiest countries.
One of the best countries for women, Sweden has one of the best education systems, 16 months of paid family leave that can be split between couples after a new child is born and free day-care for children makes some of the reasons why Sweden made it to the list. Sweden probably focuses on providing the best work-life balance.
6) the Netherlands
According to 2013 Unicef reports, they say that Dutch children are the happiest in the world, and thus people in the Netherlands would probably be happiest since they start to be happy in the beginning. They have good metrics to stay happy that include good education, educational well-being, safety, and health.
5) Norway
Although Norway has been dropping the ranks since 2017, it still makes it to the list of the World’s Happiest Countries.
With its well-integrated government welfare system, the economy which is based on natural resources, social support, trust in government, and economic well-being are some of the reasons why Norway makes the cut here in the top 10 list.
4) Iceland
The country of Iceland ranks high in terms of the proportion of respondents who said they felt like they had a fellow citizen to count on when the going gets rough.
Even though being one of the popular places for Americans to visit, Iceland has beautiful landscape countryside, a good political system, a vast amount of natural resources, and also a good health index which makes Iceland occupy the 4th position.
3) Switzerland
A country where everything gets voted on by residents which is termed a direct democracy will make the citizens feel they need to participate in the country’s development.
Every citizen of Switzerland will vote for any campaign undertaken such as installing new lights or changes in human rights. This makes the citizens of Switzerland happy hence they jumped 3 spots this year.
2) Denmark
The country of Denmark occupied the 2nd spot in the list but its metric ranked high. Life expectancy, social support, and generosity were some of the places where they were rated high, apart from that the country is known for its beautiful sceneries, and bike-friendly city, and one can take a lifetime to explore the beautiful country of Denmark.
1) Finland
The country of Finland made it to the top 10 occupying the #1 position for the third year in a row. Ranked top education-friendly country beating South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and many others.
The education system in Finland comes where the teachers should hold a master’s degree and a pedagogical system that focuses less on quantitative testing and more on experiential learning and equal opportunity. These are a must for a citizen to become a teacher in Finland.
