Finland is confirmed for the seventh consecutive year the happiest country in the world.
THE “World Happiness Report” published Wednesday reserves no surprises at the top and bottom of this particular ranking which measures the perceived well-being by people in relation to parameters such as the level of social services, health, income, degree of freedom and corruption In each country.
Behind Finland are two other Nordic nations, Denmark and Icelandremains at the bottom of the ranking Afghanistan Taliban.
The “World Happiness Report” gives Italy a lowly 41st place – just above Guatemala but significantly behind countries like Kosovo and Romania, among others.
In the first 20 positions the United States (23rd), Germany (24th) and France (27th) are not included.
The report, which is based on surveys carried out in 143 countries and the publication coincides with the International Day of Happiness.
The study, a collaboration between Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Center and the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, focuses for the first time on the analysis of happiness in different age groups.
Authors they dispel the myth that associates this general feeling of well-being and confidence in youth while old age would be the least happy phase to exist. A moment of rupture from this point of view was the pandemic which “stole” years of life, especially from the younger generations.
“The positive global trend in life satisfaction” between 15 and 24 years old arrested due to the coronavirus pandemicwe read in the report, which however highlights a positive “rebound” in the increase in post-Covid goodwill, whether measured as a percentage of the population, or whether it is measured as a percentage increase per compared to pre-pandemic levels. , is notable for all generations, but especially for Millennials and Gen Z, who are even more likely than their predecessors to help others in need.
A trend that comes a long way, according to the study. From 2006 to 2010, the happiness of 15 to 24 year olds declined significantly in North America, “to the point that young people are less happy than older people”.
A similar phenomenon, although less brutal, is recorded in Europe where the gap between its different parts has been bridged with the feeling of well-being which increases, at all ages, in the countries of central and eastern Europe which reaches the level of those in the West.
According to the report, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain are countries where there are older people today. significantly happier than young people, while Portugal and Greece show an opposite trend.
In the Middle-East, South Asia and North Africa, in the years 2021-2023, the happiness index has decreased. This is not a surprising fact.
Significant the gender gap also to measure the degree of happiness. During the period considered, the negative emotions were found in all regions more common in women than in menand almost everywhere, the gender gap was larger at older ages.
But how do we measure the happiness index?
The ranking is based on subjective assessment of respondents (each year around 1,000 responses are collected for each country) measured through three well-being indicators: assessment of quality of life, positive and negative emotions.
Life evaluation is measured every three years by the Gallup World Poll through the Cantril scale from 0 to 10, where 10 represents the best possible life for the respondents and 0 the worst.
In the report, the Positive emotions are evaluated based on the average of individual responses on three specific indicators: laughter, pleasure and interest while the negative emotions measured are the worry, sadness and anger.
For Jan-Emmanuel De Nevé, director of the Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford who participated in the study, key factors that contribute to people's well-being include GDP per capita, wealth distribution, a social state that provides psychological stability and a healthy life expectancy.
The “World Happiness Report” is a global initiative of the United Nations and was first published in 2012.
