Finnish journalist Carina Chela tells MailOnline why her home country may not be the happiest place on earth, despite what a UN-backed report says
It’s that time of year again: bad weather and people sliding around in the slush of Helsinki – and the seemingly inevitable confirmation that Finland is once again the happiest place on earth.
For the seventh year in a row, Finland ranks first in the annual World Happiness Report, followed by its northern neighbors Denmark, Iceland and Sweden.
The statistics supporting this conclusion are based on the Gallup World Poll of more than 140 countries.
No one is more skeptical than the Finns about the idea that we are the happiest people in the world.
Yes, we have income-based speeding fines, and probably the highest concentration of metal bands in the world.
From average wages to suicide rates, here’s how Finland compares to Britain and the US. Source OECD
But being the happiest seems a bit exaggerated.
Recently elected Finnish President Alexander Stubb shared on the social media website X his reasons for the country’s success – essentially nature, trust and education.
But then he said that because he had an atypically optimistic personality and an annoyingly positive approach to life and everything.
I reluctantly have to agree with him on these three topics, but only up to a point.
We actually love our reputation for having the best education system, but let’s also be loud and clear about the fact that the latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) results show that performance in Finland has collapsed, even though they remain above average.
A sustainable and strong economy? Not really.
In less than three months, Finland has had two major political strikes that have affected many sectors of the economy, and the government and unions are still unable to negotiate a happy path forward.
And let’s not forget that Finland had one of the highest suicide rates in the world thanks to alcohol abuse and antidepressants.
Today, suicide rates have halved, but are still slightly higher than the EU average.
For some reason, Finnish youth are now failing to follow in the drunken footsteps of previous generations.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has increased our sense of insecurity. We even joined NATO.
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The 840-mile border with our pesky expansionist neighbor is currently closed because the wise men in the Kremlin decided to divert migrants to the border.
It is quite annoying for all the businesses at the border that were dependent on tourism from Russia.
So I would say that Finland is certainly not among the unhappiest countries in the world, but we still have some work to do before the average Pekka will agree with the UN-sponsored happiness report.
But if Russia loses the war in Ukraine and is forced to withdraw with its tail firmly between those shaky imperialist legs, we would certainly be very happy.
So happy, in fact, that the happiness outcomes for the next decade or two would be a foregone conclusion.