"Finland continues to occupy the top spot, with a score significantly ahead of other countries in the top ten," said the report, adding five Nordic countries with Denmark in second place, followed by Iceland in third.
Eight of the top 10 happiest countries were within Europe, with Israel and New Zealand rounding out ninth and tenth places.
The study also showed that there was an internal happiness divide by place of birth. Expatriates, on average, scored 0.2 lower in the happiness index than native born residents. However this homesickness tax was far compensated in most Northern European countries.
"In Finland and the Nordic countries, people are really lucky because society still supports a system buffering these sorts of shocks," Anu Partanen, author of The Nordic Theory of Everything told AP, summing up the region's general bonhomie. In particular it helped cushion the societies during the pandemic, with a robust public health response.
The Scandinavians from Helsinki to Kilpisjärvi in the North were clear leaders of the pack.
So what can Finland tell us about happiness?
Three million Saunas can't be wrong.
Coffee makes Finns happier
Finns consume an amazing 12 kilograms of coffee per capita, making them among the most highly caffeinated population in the world.
While the consumption dipped slightly in 2021 a recent Harvard University study concluded that drinking coffee can reduce depression by up to a third.
Although caffeine dependence can lead to mood swing and crankiness, one presumes the WHR caught their Finnish respondents while they were freshly caffeinated.
Helsinki is famous for its cafe scene. Drop in to El Fant on the corner of Helsingin Tuomiokirkko cathedral for a cuppa and a Mustikkapiirakka blueberry tart. Instant mood improver.
Let off steam in a Sauna
Sauna - the national pastime of hanging out in heated cabins - is a Finnish rite of passage.
The heated birch steam cabins are proven to lead to a sense of 'euphoria' help with circulation and supposedly have a variety of health benefits including improved circulation and cognitive performance.
One sauna that bucks the trend and possibly makes you less healthy for visiting can be found in a Finnish fast-food restaurant.
In Helsinki the local branch of Burger King on Mannerheimintie street even has a sit-in sauna for diners. Customers can pay €300 to schwitz in an ambience of steamed pickles and other visitors' meat sweats. I'm not sure that sounds like an experience that sounds conducive to happiness. But who am I to argue with the World Happiness Rankings?
Lighten your spirits with heavy metal
Finland has long considered itself the spiritual home of Death Metal. With 7 metal bands per 10,000 people, there are more rockers per capita than anywhere else on earth.
While the genre might sound like power tools and torture to the untrained ear, metal is huge in Finland.
Finnish band Lordi blew away the Eurovision competition in 2006 with their 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', a surprise hit that made a return at this year's competition.
A separate study at Sydney's Macquarie University showed that metal music is accompanied by a range of complex emotions. While there is an "outsider mentality" to metal music, the study showed that listening to this desperately bleak music can help foster feelings of "belonging", nostalgia and sooth sadness. Perfect for a particularly hard breakup.
"Listeners experience empowerment, joy, transcendence and peace when they listen to this kind of music," professor Bill Thompson told Deutsche Welle.
Vocalist Ida-Katharina Kiljander says there's something about the genre that unites Finns.
"The reason why heavy metal might reflect the Finnish mentality is probably because we are so private that it is difficult to discuss our feelings," she told Finnish cultural blog Finland Stories.
This goes some way to explaining the country's stellar happiness ranking, that even misery can strike a unifying chord. But still…
You sure you're OK, Finland?
The Happiest Places on Earth
In its 10th year the World Happiness Report has been monitoring the satisfaction of the residents of over 140 countries. With around 1000 respondents from each country were asked to evaluate positive and negative aspects of their life, which formed a 'Utopian/Dystopian score' which was then added to scores ranking nations on six main factors:
GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption.
While money can't buy happiness it is normally a good predictor of the satisfaction of a populace. But not always.
Japan's enviable 1.84 GDP per capita, generous health and social support did not stop it from falling to 54th on the table.
Similarly Lebanon whose population enjoys a long healthy life-expectancy and relative wealth fell to 145th place from 102 in 2015. Lebanese self-rated their happiness with a Dystopian score of 0.2, following wide scale political collapse and a difficult pandemic.
The 20 Happiest Places on earth
1 Finland
2 Denmark
3 Iceland
4 Switzerland
5 Netherlands
6 Luxembourg
7 Sweden
8 Norway
9 Israel
10 New Zealand
11 Austria
12 Australia
13 Ireland
14 Germany
15 Canada
16 United States
17 United Kingdom
18 Czechia
19 Belgium
20 France
Source: worldhappiness.report
