Finland has been named the happiest country in the world by the World Happiness Report, launched in 2012 to promote the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals. Respondents were asked to rate their lives on a scale of one to ten.
While the Scandinavian countries took the top spots as usual, both America and Germany fell out of the top 20. War and revolution-torn Afghanistan ranked last out of 143 countries, with a score of just 1.7 compared to Finland 7.7 and Denmark 7.6.
Gender equality, trust in national institutions and fellow citizens and low corruption are all important factors in the happiness of Finns, says Kai Sauer, Finland's ambassador to Germany. In 1906 Finland became the first country in the world to give women the full right to vote and stand for parliamentary elections. When last year a reporter for Reader's Digest claimed to have lost 12 wallets with money and contact information in 16 cities around the world to test citizens' honesty, Helsinki, the Finnish capital, proved to be the most honest: 11 of the 12 wallets were they returned. And according to the latest annual index by Transparency International, a Berlin-based organization, Finland is the second least corrupt country in the world, after Denmark.
Excellent free education, universal healthcare and family-friendly policies play an important role in making Finns satisfied with their lives. Finland's education system ranks eighth among the most educated countries in the world according to the UN World Population Survey.
Health services are not free, but they are affordable. However, some argue that the real reason is that Finns push their negative thoughts away. Finland has approximately 3.5 million saunas, more than one in two Finns. All government buildings have saunas. An exhibition in Berlin called "Die Sauna. Echt heiss. Echt finnisch”, sponsored by the Finnish embassy, is celebrating sauna culture with photos, videos and … a sauna. It is a great success. All remaining sessions are reserved.
Originally published on bota.al
