Finland is the world’s happiest country, US drops to all-time low

If you’re happy and you know it, move to Finland.

Gallup released the 2024 World Happiness Report and it turns out young people in the United States and Western Europe are becoming less satisfied with their lives.

The report, which was conducted over a three-year period, surveyed more than 100,000 people in 143 countries who were asked to rate their lives on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best possible life.

Since the mid-2000s, Gallup found that happiness levels have fallen steeply among those aged 15-24 in the US, while young people in Western Europe saw a more gradual decline.

Out of the 143 countries polled, the US ranked 23 overall — an all-time low for the US, falling eight spots — and 62nd for people under the age of 30.

This year is the first since the report first launched 20 years ago that the US didn’t fall in the top 20 happiest countries.

The data supports the idea of a “loneliness epidemic” among young people, and although loneliness isn’t “unduly high” on a global scale, it was almost twice as high among millennials compared to those born before 1965.

While there’s no one single reason behind the decline in happiness among younger people, it shows the importance of “having someone to count on in times of need…as one of the top predictors of life satisfaction,” Lara Aknin, a social psychologist and one of the report’s editors, told Semafor.

The trend of Nordic countries taking the top spots continued into this year, with Finland clenching the title for happiest in the world, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia.

Although loneliness isn’t “unduly high” on a global scale, it was almost twice as high among millennials compared to those born before 1965. BullRun – stock.adobe.com

Miika Mäkitalo, a proud Finn and CEO of customer experience company HappyOrNot, told The Post in a statement, “There’s definitely a sense of surprise that we’re the happiest country. A lot of this comes down to the fact that typically we aren’t known for expressing too much emotion. In fact, we have a joke in Finland about the ‘Finnish smile,’ which is just a neutral expression.”

Despite the surprise, Mäkitalo said that the Finnish are “incredibly grateful” to be named the happiest country.

He added that some of the best parts of living and working in Finland include the beautiful nature and the “the generous 4-5 weeks of annual holiday.”

“Though it can be extremely cold and dark here for a lot of the year, the Finnish concept of ‘sisu’ (meaning ‘resilience’ or ‘grit’) and our love of sauna, are just some of the ways we keep our spirits high,” Mäkitalo shared.

“Ultimately, however, I think trust is the biggest factor in Finnish happiness. There is a great deal of trust in our society, between fellow citizens, and this also applies in the workplace, between managers and employees. In my opinion, trust is key for successful organizations, with happy employees!”