Finland is named the happiest country in the world for the sixth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report.
But what about New Zealand, you might ask? Well, it turns out that while New Zealand still ranks pretty high, coming in at tenth place, the country has actually seen a decline in overall happiness over the past ten years.
The World Happiness Report measures a country’s happiness using a variety of factors, including wealth, social support, health, freedom to travel, generosity, and corruption. While Finland continues to dominate the top of the rankings, other Northern European countries like Denmark and Iceland are also doing pretty well. New Zealand and Israel are the only outliers in the top ten, with most of the happiest countries being in Northern Europe.
To celebrate its status as the happiest country in the world, Finland’s national tourism board has even launched a four-day “Masterclass of Happiness” to teach visitors the Finnish way of contentment.
So what’s going on with New Zealand’s decline in happiness?
While the country is still doing pretty well overall, its happiness score has dropped by 0.077 to 7.123 over the past decade.
But New Zealand isn’t the only country experiencing a decline in happiness. Western Europe and North America have seen the biggest drops in happiness, while Eastern Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa have seen improvements. Despite these fluctuations, the Happiness Report claims that global life satisfaction averages are comparable to pre-pandemic years.
