https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/magazine/finland-happiest-country.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20250513&instance_id=154413&nl=from-the-times®i_id=65487453&segment_id=197848&user_id=f95abfbd01c85d999ce5dff8f57914df
For eight years running, Finland has topped the World Happiness Report — but what exactly does it measure?
“Coming to Helsinki in February is an objectively weird choice,” said a man named Mikko Tirronen. “During this time, we don’t have …” he paused. “… colors.”
I was sitting in a coffee shop with Tirronen, a web developer and writer, after flying to Helsinki to think about happiness. For eight years running, Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world by a peculiar United Nations-backed
project called the World Happiness Report, started in 2012. Soon after Finland shot to the top of the list, its government set up a “happiness tourism” initiative, which now offers itineraries highlighting the cultural elements that
ostensibly contribute to its status: foraging, fresh air, trees, lakes, sustainably produced meals and, perhaps above all else, saunas.
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