this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
285 points (100.0% liked)

World News

44300 readers
3794 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Here is a link directly to the report.

https://data.worldhappiness.report/table

top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 19 points 17 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

Wow, Israelis are pretty chirpy for being in the middle of an ethnic cleansing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 hours ago

Something tells me they didn't survey a representative sample of Gazans

[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago

Well they're not the ones being harmed

[–] [email protected] 11 points 17 hours ago

The connection is that way too many of them are thrilled about it.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (3 children)

Any Finns wanna share what you think you're doing right from your experience?

it’s about trust, connection and knowing people have your back

That seems likely. Its hard to be happy or feel safe in precarity

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago

Finn here. The common answer is that all sad people kill themselves here. The suicide rate is surprisingly high.

For a more serious answer, you have to look at what the survey actually measures. There are 3 big factors in this survey.

  1. Social support, the people believe they will get help if they need. While healthcare system receives lots of criticism due to constant budget cuts, it's still fast and cheap enough for those who really need it. Economic security is possibly the best in the world, where you receive decent support if you're poor enough and a small apartment if you're homeless, without any preconditions.

  2. Freedom, the people feel like they're free to do what they want with their lives. There are both laws that protect you from things like trespassing, meaning you can walk anywhere you want in rural areas, while the police are really lenient in urban areas and don't really care what you do as long as you don't disturb others. Also in general, people don't want to bother others as much as I've seen in other countries.

  3. Perceptions of corruption, the people believe in the government and media. We enjoy a strong democratic system that, although not perfect, is among the best in the world. The political climate is also rather mild, with the largest party in every election being centre-left, centre or centre-right. Although the right-wing has recently been on the rise, it seems like that trend is starting to turn. As for media, the state sponsored YLE is about as unbiased as media can be, although their coverage of global events can be somewhat lackluster. Also, despite being state sponsored, they operate completely independently.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 21 hours ago

It's not that they're doing something special, it's a cultual attitude thing. Finns feel content that they have enough, and aren't upset they don't have more. They consider that to mean "happy" for the purpose of these kinds of surveys.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

In another community where this article was posted, a commenter who claimed to be Finn said it’s not true and that it’s the way Finns interact with the survey questions that make it seem like they are responding positively. I can’t explain it very well but you can find it somewhere here: https://sh.itjust.works/post/34737766

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Who do you think is the runner up that doesn't have the deficiency you're suggesting? You'd think the survey would be localized to whatever it is should understood as "happiness" however its defined for everyone else

[–] [email protected] 5 points 19 hours ago

I dunno, I didn’t make the claim, they did. Go ask them. I just linked the thread because you were asking for comments from actual Finns.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 21 hours ago

Looks like the US is 24 out of 147. It'd be interesting to see the correlation with median income, I'd bet the US is even more behind where a nation of it's wealth would tend to be be.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

How the hell do you accurately measure happiness? It sounds so abstract. Also who claims the authority of deciding this? I am honestly asking out of curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

It's a self reported survey.

Our happiness ranking is based on a single life evaluation question called the Cantril Ladder:

Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?

This question is both democratic and universal. Rather than constructing an index from multiple metrics, the Cantril Ladder empowers people to make their own judgements about what matters most, regardless of their culture and background.

The question does not mention concepts like happiness, wellbeing, or satisfaction, so it can be easily translated and understood in many different languages.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

I wonder if the survey asks people multiple times throughout multiple days. Like you ask me in the morning of a hangover I'm definitely down a few rungs compared to the night before. It would be best to know where the average rung you're on is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Ok then I'm surprised it's so high on average. Only some very bad places drop under 5

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

That's because people don't know what communism is