Which country will make you happy?

Finland is the happiest nation on earth, according to the UN’s 2018 World Happiness Report. The study ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 by their immigrants’ happiness. The lists are strikingly similar.

Quality of life

Finland takes the top spot in the general happiness ranking as well as the happiest immigrants list. Its Nordic neighbours – Norway, Finland and Iceland – make up the rest of the top four in each one. The ten happiest countries overall also take ten of the top eleven spots in the list of immigrant happiness. “The closeness of the two rankings shows that the happiness of immigrants depends predominantly on the quality of life where they now live,” explains the report.

Social fabric

“Immigrant happiness, like that of the locally born, depends on a range of features of the social fabric, extending far beyond the higher incomes traditionally thought to inspire and reward migration,” the report continues. “The countries with the happiest immigrants are not the richest countries, but instead the countries with a more balanced set of social and institutional supports for better lives.”

Footprint

While people who move to happier countries gain, and those who move to less happy countries lose, the researchers point out that their happiness is also influenced by the country they come from. This is called the ‘footprint’ effect and “explains why immigrant happiness is less than that of the locals in the happiest countries, while being greater in the least happy countries,” according to the report.

Sources: bbc.co.uk, worldhappiness.report
Photo: Visit Lakeland – Flickr