Finland ranks World’s Happiest Country for 4 years in a row

Finland has been ranked as the happiest country in the word for the fourth consecutive year, according to the latest report of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, powered by data from the Gallup World Poll and Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

As in 2018, 2019, and 2020, Finland again takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, said the report published on Friday.

Iceland secured the second place on the list, followed by Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Norway, New Zealand, and Austria.

Afghanistan ranked at the very bottom of the list of 159 countries, followed by Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Botswana.

The 2021 World Happiness Report marks a sombre moment as COVID-19 continues to rage on a little more than a year since it was declared a pandemic by the WHO.

This year’s Happiness Report was faced with a unique challenge in trying to understand what effect the pandemic has had on subjective wellbeing and vice versa. Of all the factors usually supporting happiness, the most important for explaining COVID-19 death rates were people’s trust in each other, and confidence in their governments.

Finland once again takes the top spot as the happiest country in the world, according to the survey data taken from the Gallup World Poll. It has always ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic. The rankings overall remained very similar to last year’s, said the report.