
Finland – The Happiest Country in the World
- On June 9, 2025

Last year, Finland ranked as the happiest country in the world for the 7th time, according to the UN’s “World Happiness Report”. Why is that? And what does it mean, anyway? Let’s take a look.
I visited Finland in May and June of 2025. A big part of the trip was a tour to see the birds and wildlife of the country – which we did, including wolverines and brown (i.e., grizzly) bears. But I also spent time in the Lake District and in Helsinki itself. I’m not a big cold-weather fan, so I’m not sure I’d put Finland at the top of my places to live. But it’s definitely a very cool and sustainable country and as the capital, Helsinki combines those values with a strong and lovely design sense.


The UN report is a great quantitative analysis of factors that contribute to health and well-being. As Business Finland explains, “The basis for Finland’s consistent #1 position in happiness is explained by the high levels of trust and freedom in its society – which research shows contributes to well-being and productivity.” Finland is also a country with a strong safety net and relatively low income inequality, as reflected in its 2023 Gini coefficient of 27.4 (where 0 would be perfect equality and 1 would be perfect inequality). By comparison, the US coefficient that year was 41.8.

Other than the weather, our trip to almost all parts of Finland proved to us that the people throughout the country were uniformly helpful, welcome and – yes – happy! The World Happiness Report provides a great deal of research and data for evaluating these issues. But going on my personal experience, I have to say that the country and Helsinki so indeed seem to be healthy and welcoming. The US (#24 happiest country) has a lot it can learn from Finland.

