I always wondered why the world happiest country has a, in comparison to unhappier countries, high suicide rate.
Finland has serious alcohol abuse. I wouldn’t call it the happiest.
wasn´t Finland until very VERY recently one of the countries with highest suicide stats?
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How is it now one of the happiest places?
Everyone criticizing has to remember this is based on incomplete metrics. There is no way to quantify “happiness” any more then there is a constant goal line to it. It’s a fun thing to see.
200 years ago most of our ancestors would be “happy” if they had a full stomach and didn’t have to do back breaking work. Now we’re unhappy because we work at a desk and can’t decide what type of cusine to get cause it’s all so samey…
“Interested travelers need to fill out a form and complete a social media challenge.”
So basically you have to be a happy extrovert to apply. How about letting depressive introverts have a chance since it might actually help them?
No official statistics are kept on ethnicities in Finland, but it’s basically 92% racially homogenous.
People are kinder and more socially generous when everybody looks and acts the same.
Meanwhile, Finland has a very high suicide rate.
So no, I don’t believe that it is such a happy country.
Suicide rate is 13 / 100000 inhabitants. 12 EU countries have higher, 15 lower (UK is still part of EU in this statistic). EU average is 11 suicides / 100000.
Why show-off in the summer and not the beautiful months of December, January or February???
A finnish friend, years ago, told me : “I like italian people cause the laugh even if they are not drunk”.
This made me think.
Been in Finland many times ( I got finnish relatives), it’s a well organised and efficient country but happy?
But happiness is a very relative value.
“for example, […] happiness and [life] satisfaction are distinct constructs, as happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously, while life satisfaction is a long-term feeling based on achieving life-long goals.”
I bet the low level corruption is one of the main reasons for their happiness!
In the eastern countries we are eaten alive by it like a disease.
What does it mean when a country is happy?
Finns certainly aren’t known for walking around with smiles from ear to ear.
“Happiness” in these types of studies always correlates to some material wealth, social welfare and gender equality. All good things to have, but I don’t think it’s at all the same as being “happy” in the conventional sense.
Finns are known for being depressed.
Finnish people look like there’s something wrong with them.
I was hoping they’d be giving away free buckets. We all know that’s the reason why Fins are the happiest people.
Wow everybody loves to dunk on finland it seems
No thanks, i like being a miserable fuck sitting on reddit 24/7
*it was a joke btw*
To be honest I would take this index way more seriously if they just changed the name of the title since the metrics used don’t necessarily correlate to happiness. Something like “most balanced/stable society” would be much better. Happiness index is just click bait imo but I guess they need some catchy word.
Clickbait with very narrow methodology…
I wanna go
what nobody talks about: 50% of the time in the year finland is basically dark as fuck. and literally everyone (!) is addicted to alcohol. not even a joke. actually curious why its the happiest country when it also has one of the highest depression and suicide rates in the world.
26 comments
I always wondered why the world happiest country has a, in comparison to unhappier countries, high suicide rate.
Finland has serious alcohol abuse. I wouldn’t call it the happiest.
wasn´t Finland until very VERY recently one of the countries with highest suicide stats?
​
How is it now one of the happiest places?
Everyone criticizing has to remember this is based on incomplete metrics. There is no way to quantify “happiness” any more then there is a constant goal line to it. It’s a fun thing to see.
200 years ago most of our ancestors would be “happy” if they had a full stomach and didn’t have to do back breaking work. Now we’re unhappy because we work at a desk and can’t decide what type of cusine to get cause it’s all so samey…
“Interested travelers need to fill out a form and complete a social media challenge.”
So basically you have to be a happy extrovert to apply. How about letting depressive introverts have a chance since it might actually help them?
No official statistics are kept on ethnicities in Finland, but it’s basically 92% racially homogenous.
“Finland is very ethnically homogeneous. Most of the population is ethnic Finnish. Just 3.5% of the population is made up of foreign citizens.” [Source](https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/finland-population)
People are kinder and more socially generous when everybody looks and acts the same.
Meanwhile, Finland has a very high suicide rate.
So no, I don’t believe that it is such a happy country.
Suicide rate is 13 / 100000 inhabitants. 12 EU countries have higher, 15 lower (UK is still part of EU in this statistic). EU average is 11 suicides / 100000.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/DDN-20180716-1
Why show-off in the summer and not the beautiful months of December, January or February???
A finnish friend, years ago, told me : “I like italian people cause the laugh even if they are not drunk”.
This made me think.
Been in Finland many times ( I got finnish relatives), it’s a well organised and efficient country but happy?
But happiness is a very relative value.
“for example, […] happiness and [life] satisfaction are distinct constructs, as happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously, while life satisfaction is a long-term feeling based on achieving life-long goals.”
[Difference between Happiness and Life Satisfaction ](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955857/#:~:text=%5B47%5D%2C%20for%20example%2C,on%20achieving%20life%2Dlong%20goals.)
I bet the low level corruption is one of the main reasons for their happiness!
In the eastern countries we are eaten alive by it like a disease.
What does it mean when a country is happy?
Finns certainly aren’t known for walking around with smiles from ear to ear.
“Happiness” in these types of studies always correlates to some material wealth, social welfare and gender equality. All good things to have, but I don’t think it’s at all the same as being “happy” in the conventional sense.
Finns are known for being depressed.
Finnish people look like there’s something wrong with them.
I was hoping they’d be giving away free buckets. We all know that’s the reason why Fins are the happiest people.
Wow everybody loves to dunk on finland it seems
No thanks, i like being a miserable fuck sitting on reddit 24/7
*it was a joke btw*
To be honest I would take this index way more seriously if they just changed the name of the title since the metrics used don’t necessarily correlate to happiness. Something like “most balanced/stable society” would be much better. Happiness index is just click bait imo but I guess they need some catchy word.
Clickbait with very narrow methodology…
I wanna go
what nobody talks about: 50% of the time in the year finland is basically dark as fuck. and literally everyone (!) is addicted to alcohol. not even a joke. actually curious why its the happiest country when it also has one of the highest depression and suicide rates in the world.
OMFG just kill me already
Nice article I read not long ago [Happiness is becoming fashionable](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-12-07/philosopher-jose-antonio-marina-the-fact-that-happiness-has-become-fashionable-is-catastrophic.html?outputType=amp)
Living next to Russia wouldn’t make me happy.
I wish I can go but I would never make a video and share something like that. Good luck to everyone.