On the Throne of Happiness: This Country Reigns Supreme in the World

Home to thousands of lakes and vast forests, the Scandinavian country is known for its extensive patronage system, its population’s great confidence in power and low rates of inequality among its 5.5 million Finns.

Although Ukraine’s ranking rose from 98 to 92 this year despite the war on its soil, its overall score dropped from 5,084 to 5,071 out of 10.

Professor Yan-Emmanuel De Neuf, one of the report’s authors, pointed to “a significant increase in the sense of sympathy for others in various parts of Ukraine,” despite what the report described as “the enormity of suffering and damage recorded in Ukraine” since the Russian seizure of its lands in February 2022.

The report found that in 2022, “practices involving kindness increased significantly in Ukraine, while they decreased in Russia.” Among these practices are helping strangers and acts of donation.

The report also indicated “an increase in the feeling among Ukrainians that they have a common goal, in addition to an increase in confidence in the Ukrainian authorities” compared to what was the situation after Russia annexed Crimea to its lands in 2014.

The Scandinavian countries maintained their positions at the top of the ranking, with Denmark taking second place, followed by Iceland in third.

Israel came fourth, with an additional five points compared to the score it obtained in last year’s ranking.

“While the same countries top the list every year, the Baltic states are rapidly advancing towards the levels of Western European countries,” the report’s authors said.

And now Lithuania is the only one of these countries to appear in the top twenty with its 20th place, while Estonia came in 31st place after it was ranked 66th in 2017.

As for Afghanistan, which witnessed decades of war and was at the bottom of the rankings in 2020, the humanitarian crisis has worsened since the Taliban seized power in 2021, following the withdrawal of US forces.

The authors of the study, published annually since 2012, are based on opinion polls in which residents answer questionnaires on the degree of personal happiness. These data are interpolated with the gross domestic product and indicators of solidarity, individual freedom and corruption, to put a final score on 10.