Finland tops list of happiest nations for fifth straight year

Finland is the happiest country in the world for the fifth straight year, the World Happiness Report announced Thursday. 

The  list, compiled by UNICEF, showed Finland at No. 1 in 2022, followed by Denmark and Iceland. 

The list is out of 149 countries and is based on people’s own opinions of their country, along with data regarding the economics and general state of a nation.

Countries that got some bumps in their happiness ranking in the past year include the U.S., which jumped from 19th to 16th place. 

Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania had the biggest jumps in happiness, while Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan had the biggest drops. 

Afghanistan fell into last place, with the quality of life deteriorating after the Taliban took over in August. 

“At the very bottom of the ranking we find societies that suffer from conflict and extreme poverty, notably we find that people in Afghanistan evaluate the quality of their own lives as merely 2.4 out of 10,” one of the list’s authors, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, said. 

“This presents a stark reminder of the material and immaterial damage that war does to its many victims and the fundamental importance of peace and stability for human well-being,” De Neve added. 

The investigations for the report concluded before the war between Russia and Ukraine began.