The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s World Happiness Report 2025 has ranked Finland as the happiest country in the world for the eighth consecutive year in a row.
The report also showed that four of the top five happiest countries are Nordic countries.
The World Happiness Report combines open-access data from over 140 countries in the world which is then analyzed by world-leading researchers across a large range of academic disciplines and departments.
Finland wasn’t the only Nordic country to rank high again this year. Denmark followed in second place while Iceland, Sweden, and the Netherlands rounded out the top five.
The capital city of the world’s happiest country exemplifies what makes Finland such an ideal spot for happiness—not just focusing on health or wealth alone, Helsinki places emphasis on things like community, kindness, trust in society, and easy access to nature and green spaces.
“One way Helsinki strengthens its sense of community is through OmaStadi, the city’s participatory budgeting initiative,” Juhana Vartiainen, the mayor of Helsinki, said in a press release.
“It gives residents the opportunity to directly influence how public funds are spent – by proposing ideas and voting on projects that improve their own neighbourhoods.”
The city doesn’t just focus on outward or performative happiness, either. It rather focuses on an overall feeling of contentment and the way of life that is generally accepted in Helsinki and the rest of Finland as well.
“Here, happiness is quietly built into everyday life. And while it may not always show on our faces, it’s there in the way life works, in the way people come together, and in the spaces we share,” said Vartiainen.
“A good example of this is the Oodi Central Library – a public space where people of all ages and backgrounds gather to read, work, play, or simply spend time. In 2022, the Oodi library had nearly 1.82 million visits.”
Helsinki also exemplifies ways that the community can come together without feeling forced or pressure to socialize all the time; the city and its culture over the last century have developed in a way that allows citizens to feel like they can just be, and trust that they can count on others and that life will work its way out.
It’s not about being outwardly over the moon every day but rather living with a certainty that everyday things are designed to make life feel stable.
