Finland is world’s happiest country, U.S. discontent grows: U.N. report

The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

Nigeria ranks 91st while the East African country Burundi was ranked las in the report.

Taking the harsh, dark winters in their stride, Finns said access to nature, safety, childcare, good schools and free healthcare were among the best things about in their country.

“I think everything in this society is set up for people to be successful, starting with university and transportation that works really well,” Owens an immigrant from the America explains.

Finland, rose from fifth place last year to oust Norway from the top spot. Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia are among the top top 10, which as ever is dominated by the Nordics.

The United States came in at 18th, down from 14th place last year. Britain was 19th, the United Arab Emirates 20th.

One chapter of the 170-page report is dedicated to emerging health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis, particularly in the United States where the prevalence of all three has grown faster than in most other countries.

For the first time since it was started in 2012, the report, which uses a variety of polling organizations, official figures, and research methods, ranked the happiness of foreign-born immigrants in 117 countries. Finland took top honors in that category too, giving the country a statistical double-gold status.

The foreign-born were least happy in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for seven years.

“The most striking finding of the report is the remarkable consistency between the happiness of immigrants and the locally born,” says Professor John Helliwell of Canada’s University of British Columbia.

He continues: “Although immigrants come from countries with very different levels of happiness, their reported life evaluations converge towards those of other residents in their new countries.”

“Those who move to happier countries gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose,” Helliwell adds.

For more on this report, visit the Reuter’s website.