As of: March 24, 2024, 5:23 a.m
By: Michelle Brey
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When it comes to happiness, Germany is far behind in comparison.
According to a report, Finland, Denmark and Iceland show how this can be done better.
Frankfurt – It's the seventh year in a row and Finland is once again at the top.
The “World Happiness Report” once again named the Scandinavian country the happiest.
Germany and the USA are slipping in the rankings.
The ranking includes a total of 143 countries.
What is the formula for a happy life?
World Happiness Report 2024: Countries from the north take top positions – and where does that leave Germany?
On the occasion of the International Day of Happiness, the United Nations published the annual World Happiness Report.
The scientists looked at the period between 2021 and 2023. Subjective assessments of the lives of the population living in the country were assessed.
According to the report, Finland is the happiest country for the seventh time.
(Symbolic image) © Kimberli Fredericks/Imago
The top positions are again largely occupied by countries from the north.
Germany, on the other hand, made a significant move downwards and slipped from 16th place to 24th place. Costa Rica and Kuwait, on the other hand, can look forward to top positions with 12th and 13th place.
Austria comes in 14th place, Great Britain in 20th place, Italy only in 41st place.
In the list, the largest countries are no longer among the happiest 20 - the USA also went down: 23rd place instead of 15th place.
Places one to ten in the overview: These are the happiest countries according to the report
Finland
Denmark
Iceland
Sweden
Israel
Netherlands
Norway
Luxembourg
Switzerland
Australia
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First place in the happiness ranking again: What is Finland's secret?
The happiness researchers did not go into detail in the report about exactly what makes the Finns happier than all other peoples on earth.
However, they have identified a number of key factors that generally make people happier.
For example, the following aspects:
Social support
income
Freedom
Absence of corruption
“So it's not necessarily happy in the sense of jumping up and down, being happy in the moment.
It's more of a feeling of satisfaction.
“I think that’s an important point,” said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the authors of the World Happiness Report, to the German Press Agency.
The fact is that people in Scandinavian countries rate their own lives very highly in these points and are satisfied.
Scientists have discovered that there is another factor that makes you happy.
It's not just a job or a relationship that makes you happy, but above all this factor - say scientists
Scientists use data to analyze how happy the population in each country is.
© Martin Gerten/dpa
“One factor is that the government functions effectively, but above all that it is actually able to be there for the citizens,” said Finnish psychologist Frank Martela.
So it's not necessarily that Finland has the most excessively happy people, but rather that there are very few extremely unhappy people in Finland, Martela explained.
This also contributes to people comparing themselves less with others.
Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world
Global happiness inequality has increased by more than 20 percent across all regions and age groups over the past twelve years.
According to the World Happiness Report, the unhappiest country is Afghanistan.
There is a difference of around 6 points on the average happiness scale from 0 to 10 between the country of the happiest people, Finland (7.7) and Afghanistan (1.7). Germany has a value of 6.7 on the scale According to the World Happiness Report from 2023, it was 6.9.
(mbr with dpa/AFP)