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Same news from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-2024-wellness/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-

Same news from CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-2024-wellness/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/travel/worlds-happiest-countries-202... 1. Finland 2. Denmark 3. Iceland 4. Sweden 5. Israel 6. Netherlands 7. Norway 8. Luxembourg 9. Switzerland 10. Australia 11. New Zealand 12. Costa Rica 13. Kuwait 14. Austria 15. Canada 16. Belgium 17. Ireland 18. Czechia 19. Lithuania 20. United Kingdom

Simon_ORourke 3y ago
Israel at number five? Go figure?
- maratc 3y ago
  This has been researched, the ultra-religious population (with the traditional clothing, very large amount of children, not much of an income) are regularly reporting high levels of happiness.
  - Simon_ORourke 3y ago
    With the rest of Israeli society subsidizing their lifestyle choices. Fine, go be as religious as you like but don't force me to pay for it!
- jbenjoseph 3y ago
  Driven especially by having the second most happiest youth. For one, Israel is an advanced country with mostly sunny weather. But the edge in my opinion is military/service culture produces a sense of self-actualization in the youth that is lacking in much of the West. Religion also makes people happy, and Israel is a pretty religious country.
  - lucianbr 3y ago
    Religion also gives people a somewhat higher than average chance of being murdered by people of a different religion. At least, that's how it seems to be in Israel / Palestine and actually that whole area. I guess some people around there die happy, believing it is for a good cause, so there's no contradiction, at least not from their point of view. I'd still rather take Norway or New Zealand.
    - jbenjoseph 3y ago
      Israel has amongst the highest life expectancies in the world and without the similar healthcare costs of other countries.
      - lucianbr 3y ago
        Point being that religion is strictly a good thing, even when accounting for being more or less at war with other religious nuts for decades? Guess if that's what the evidence says...
        invalidname 3y ago
        Non-religious/secular are the largest demographic in Israel by far.
        maratc 3y ago
        There's no point being made about what is a "good thing" or a "bad thing", since that depends on the values of the people making the judgment. The point being made here is that having a lot of (religious, family, community) obligations fills one's life with a certain sense of worth, importance, meaning, and fulfillment — and makes them self-report as being happy, when asked by researchers. No judgments about what's good or bad.
        lucianbr 3y ago
        Well, if it makes me self-report as happy, and makes me live longer (on average), I hardly think it is useful to say "no judgement on what's good or bad". If living long while being happy is not good, I don't know what is. I am very surprised though that people in what is nearly a perpetual war, being attacked or hated from all sides, are both subjectively happier and objectively longer living than most of the rest of the planet. Either I have really no clue what happiness is, or we are wrong about the idea that war is bad, at least not in all cases.
        3y ago
  - invalidname 3y ago
    Nope. Israel is one of the most secular countries around with more than 40% of the population defined as secular.
    - maratc 3y ago
      There's a difference between "Do you believe in [some sort or form of] God?" and "Do you regularly spend a significant part of your day doing what your God expects from you?" To put that into perspective, imagine a Christian country with 40% of non-believers and 60% of monks (with the monks consistently reporting high levels of happiness). That would strongly remind of Israel. (To be clear, both Jewish and Muslim population is included in the latter.)
      - invalidname 3y ago
        Nope, you have a misconception of the country. Source: am Israeli atheist. Majority is secular. Of the religious people the majority are relatively tame. There are some extremist religious people e.g. Hasidim but they are a cult of their own (think Amish). They probably wouldn't even take part in a survey. The reason for happiness is multi-fold: * It's a 3 year average. Notice that Israel is actually slipping due to last year. * Economy was generally good until last October * Army service tends to unify the community * It's a small country which tends to bring people together through collective fate I'm not saying that the religious people aren't happier than the median. But I am saying that based on statistics Israel is relatively secular. More so than most western countries.
        maratc 3y ago
        You’ll be able to enjoy the YouTube lecture by prof. Yuval Harari (as originally recorded) where he addresses the issues of happiness, measuring happiness, and how and why Israeli society ranks so high.
        invalidname 3y ago
        Not a big fan of his. I think he over simplifies some ideas for mass consumption. Regardless, this is a self reporting study which is the only way to report happiness. Over the past 3 years prior to October Israel had years of peace which are far more appreciated in a country that has known quite a lot of conflict. I think westerners don't appreciate this as much as we do.
- livrem 3y ago
  There is some discussion about that on https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-younger-the-older-and-those-in-between/# https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-young.... They did actually drop a pretty significant 0.9 points in the latest poll, but since the list is using three year averages that only caused a 0.3 drop for 2023.
- vr46 3y ago
  Heading towards a theocracy, so expected.
taejavu 3y ago
Bhutan is the self-proclaimed “Happiest Country in the World”, going so far as to “measure” Gross Domestic Happiness and claim it’s more important to their government than GDP. Why is Bhutan not on this list? Too small?
- input_sh 3y ago
  Full list, 143 countries. Bhutan isn't one of them. https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-younger-the-older-and-those-in-between/#ranking-of-happiness-2021-2023 https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-young...
usr1106 3y ago
The methodology of that report causes questions amongst Finnish researchers and observers every year. * One of the highest suicide rates in Europe * One of the highest homocide rates in Europe * High rate of drug related mortality * Poorly performing economy since the financial crisis 2008 / Nokia mobile phones fell in 2011 * Rapidly growing public and private debt * A far right government with an xenophobic, anti-EU, "we need a strong leader" party being the second strongest * Increasing strikes (well that might be too new to be covered by the research) How does that lead to rank 1? Simple answer from the mouth of a Finnish teenager: "All that are not happy have committed suicide." Edit: I don't question that Finland ranks higher than the US. But the number 1 is very questionable.
- mikkom 3y ago
  > A far right government with an xenophobic, anti-EU, "we need a strong leader" party being the second strongest Other things on the list I can understand but not this one. The government is not "far right" and not "xenophobic" (although one of the party in the government might be labeled as such, persus). Compared to US for example I think the current government is much more on the left than either republicans or democrats. The leading party in finland (part of the government) is actively pushing for more work-based migration. Where did you get the "we need a strong leader" rethoric that you mention? I have never seen that from Persus (the party you are refering to)
  - usr1106 3y ago
    The government has generally been described as the most right in modern history in Finland. That is a mixture of "taking from the poor, giving to the rich" and a xenophobic agenda. That not all parties support the xenophobic line does not change the fact that such goals have been written into the agenda and laws are likely to be passed. Not fully as extreme as one party would like, but still. Of course left - right is only one dimension in politics. Nowadays typically another dimension is conservative - liberal, but even 2 dimensions cannot measure everything. So the government could probably be described as the most economic right and the least liberal, I simplified that a bit to far right. That party has no such strong leader agenda, but to my understanding polls show a clear correlation between "everything was better under Kekkonen" (a president for over 25 years with a somewhat authoritarian leader style) and voting for the "True Finns" / "Finns Party" today. Either way this government is too young to have a major impact on the study in TFA. My point was more like the other way round: Happy people would not vote for the party of the dissatisfied, simple answers, everything was better before EU/the foreigners came. For those following German politics, "Wutbürger" (angry citizens) would typically not be happy people, would they?
Ekaros 3y ago
One that I question is UK at 20... There is so much news about various economic pressures there that it is surprising to find it ranking so high.
- bluedonuts 3y ago
  This was doing the news rounds recently 'UK second most miserable country' so surely something doesnt add up. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/uk-is-officially-the-worlds-second-most-miserable-country-these-were-the-happiest-and-unhappiest-countries-of-2023/articleshow/108361220.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/uk-i...
  - defrost 3y ago
    John Oliver would very likely comment that the British are truly happy being miserable.
    - nickd2001 3y ago
      I can confirm that us Brits do like to have a good old whinge ;) A national trait that's for sure. Personally, I don't notice people whinging quite as much as they did as when I was younger, I feel possibly we've absorbed a bit of the American positive thinking mentality. But certainly wonder how this shows itself on surveys. Its quite possible that Brits when asked in a survey, say their life is "s**" then having had the fantastic privilege that day, of whinge-ing in a survey as well as to anyone around them who fancies listening, they go on their merry way, quite cheerful for having told someone extra how terrible everything is. ;)
      - defrost 3y ago
        Yeah, there was a reason you lot got dubbed whinging poms ;) It's endearing. Slice of history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfq1zCVhA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfq1zCVhA0
- thom 3y ago
Qiu_Zhanxuan 3y ago
How does Israel and Kuwait rank so high ? Did they surveyed the arab israelis and Palestinians? What about those slave workers in Kuwait ? In both case that's more than half the total population that lives in horrible conditions. Makes this whole Ranking suspicious
- nf3 3y ago
  - Israelis have a well-known reality-distortion field as regards their well being. - The Palestinian population, de facto subjects of the Israeli state, are most probably not included. Disclaimer: I'm an Israeli expat.
- maratc 3y ago
  All these studies are self-reported happiness (basically, many people answering the question "How happy do you feel today?"). Israel ranks high because large parts of the population — the religious ones, with not a lot of income but many children and a strong sense of fulfillment — are regularly and steadily self-reporting high levels of happiness. (This relates to both Jewish and Muslim citizens of Israel.) Your (or mine, or anyone's) view of their conditions don't have much influence on their everyday feelings. > Makes this whole Ranking suspicious There's nothing too suspicious about asking many people in different countries are they feeling happy on this particular day. If anything, what's looking suspicious is the premise that high levels of GDP (for whatever that means) would result in more happiness of the people.
pixelesque 3y ago
That's the "Life Evaluation" list, there are other criteria as well if you look at the full report... Large differences between age groups as well, as the report states: > Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain are countries where the old are now significantly happier than the young, while Portugal and Greece show the reverse pattern.
082349872349872 3y ago
For those who prefer a full list, more discussion, and the original source: https://worldhappiness.report https://worldhappiness.report

Simon_ORourke 3y ago

Israel at number five? Go figure?

maratc 3y ago
This has been researched, the ultra-religious population (with the traditional clothing, very large amount of children, not much of an income) are regularly reporting high levels of happiness.
- Simon_ORourke 3y ago
  With the rest of Israeli society subsidizing their lifestyle choices. Fine, go be as religious as you like but don't force me to pay for it!
jbenjoseph 3y ago
Driven especially by having the second most happiest youth. For one, Israel is an advanced country with mostly sunny weather. But the edge in my opinion is military/service culture produces a sense of self-actualization in the youth that is lacking in much of the West. Religion also makes people happy, and Israel is a pretty religious country.
- lucianbr 3y ago
  Religion also gives people a somewhat higher than average chance of being murdered by people of a different religion. At least, that's how it seems to be in Israel / Palestine and actually that whole area. I guess some people around there die happy, believing it is for a good cause, so there's no contradiction, at least not from their point of view. I'd still rather take Norway or New Zealand.
  - jbenjoseph 3y ago
    Israel has amongst the highest life expectancies in the world and without the similar healthcare costs of other countries.
    - lucianbr 3y ago
      Point being that religion is strictly a good thing, even when accounting for being more or less at war with other religious nuts for decades? Guess if that's what the evidence says...
      - invalidname 3y ago
        Non-religious/secular are the largest demographic in Israel by far.
      - maratc 3y ago
        There's no point being made about what is a "good thing" or a "bad thing", since that depends on the values of the people making the judgment. The point being made here is that having a lot of (religious, family, community) obligations fills one's life with a certain sense of worth, importance, meaning, and fulfillment — and makes them self-report as being happy, when asked by researchers. No judgments about what's good or bad.
        lucianbr 3y ago
        Well, if it makes me self-report as happy, and makes me live longer (on average), I hardly think it is useful to say "no judgement on what's good or bad". If living long while being happy is not good, I don't know what is. I am very surprised though that people in what is nearly a perpetual war, being attacked or hated from all sides, are both subjectively happier and objectively longer living than most of the rest of the planet. Either I have really no clue what happiness is, or we are wrong about the idea that war is bad, at least not in all cases.
        3y ago
- invalidname 3y ago
  Nope. Israel is one of the most secular countries around with more than 40% of the population defined as secular.
  - maratc 3y ago
    There's a difference between "Do you believe in [some sort or form of] God?" and "Do you regularly spend a significant part of your day doing what your God expects from you?" To put that into perspective, imagine a Christian country with 40% of non-believers and 60% of monks (with the monks consistently reporting high levels of happiness). That would strongly remind of Israel. (To be clear, both Jewish and Muslim population is included in the latter.)
    - invalidname 3y ago
      Nope, you have a misconception of the country. Source: am Israeli atheist. Majority is secular. Of the religious people the majority are relatively tame. There are some extremist religious people e.g. Hasidim but they are a cult of their own (think Amish). They probably wouldn't even take part in a survey. The reason for happiness is multi-fold: * It's a 3 year average. Notice that Israel is actually slipping due to last year. * Economy was generally good until last October * Army service tends to unify the community * It's a small country which tends to bring people together through collective fate I'm not saying that the religious people aren't happier than the median. But I am saying that based on statistics Israel is relatively secular. More so than most western countries.
      - maratc 3y ago
        You’ll be able to enjoy the YouTube lecture by prof. Yuval Harari (as originally recorded) where he addresses the issues of happiness, measuring happiness, and how and why Israeli society ranks so high.
        invalidname 3y ago
        Not a big fan of his. I think he over simplifies some ideas for mass consumption. Regardless, this is a self reporting study which is the only way to report happiness. Over the past 3 years prior to October Israel had years of peace which are far more appreciated in a country that has known quite a lot of conflict. I think westerners don't appreciate this as much as we do.
livrem 3y ago
There is some discussion about that on https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-younger-the-older-and-those-in-between/# https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-young.... They did actually drop a pretty significant 0.9 points in the latest poll, but since the list is using three year averages that only caused a 0.3 drop for 2023.
vr46 3y ago
Heading towards a theocracy, so expected.

taejavu 3y ago

Bhutan is the self-proclaimed “Happiest Country in the World”, going so far as to “measure” Gross Domestic Happiness and claim it’s more important to their government than GDP. Why is Bhutan not on this list? Too small?

input_sh 3y ago
Full list, 143 countries. Bhutan isn't one of them. https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-younger-the-older-and-those-in-between/#ranking-of-happiness-2021-2023 https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2024/happiness-of-the-young...

usr1106 3y ago

The methodology of that report causes questions amongst Finnish researchers and observers every year. * One of the highest suicide rates in Europe * One of the highest homocide rates in Europe * High rate of drug related mortality * Poorly performing economy since the financial crisis 2008 / Nokia mobile phones fell in 2011 * Rapidly growing public and private debt * A far right government with an xenophobic, anti-EU, "we need a strong leader" party being the second strongest * Increasing strikes (well that might be too new to be covered by the research) How does that lead to rank 1? Simple answer from the mouth of a Finnish teenager: "All that are not happy have committed suicide." Edit: I don't question that Finland ranks higher than the US. But the number 1 is very questionable.

mikkom 3y ago
> A far right government with an xenophobic, anti-EU, "we need a strong leader" party being the second strongest Other things on the list I can understand but not this one. The government is not "far right" and not "xenophobic" (although one of the party in the government might be labeled as such, persus). Compared to US for example I think the current government is much more on the left than either republicans or democrats. The leading party in finland (part of the government) is actively pushing for more work-based migration. Where did you get the "we need a strong leader" rethoric that you mention? I have never seen that from Persus (the party you are refering to)
- usr1106 3y ago
  The government has generally been described as the most right in modern history in Finland. That is a mixture of "taking from the poor, giving to the rich" and a xenophobic agenda. That not all parties support the xenophobic line does not change the fact that such goals have been written into the agenda and laws are likely to be passed. Not fully as extreme as one party would like, but still. Of course left - right is only one dimension in politics. Nowadays typically another dimension is conservative - liberal, but even 2 dimensions cannot measure everything. So the government could probably be described as the most economic right and the least liberal, I simplified that a bit to far right. That party has no such strong leader agenda, but to my understanding polls show a clear correlation between "everything was better under Kekkonen" (a president for over 25 years with a somewhat authoritarian leader style) and voting for the "True Finns" / "Finns Party" today. Either way this government is too young to have a major impact on the study in TFA. My point was more like the other way round: Happy people would not vote for the party of the dissatisfied, simple answers, everything was better before EU/the foreigners came. For those following German politics, "Wutbürger" (angry citizens) would typically not be happy people, would they?

Ekaros 3y ago

One that I question is UK at 20... There is so much news about various economic pressures there that it is surprising to find it ranking so high.

bluedonuts 3y ago
This was doing the news rounds recently 'UK second most miserable country' so surely something doesnt add up. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/uk-is-officially-the-worlds-second-most-miserable-country-these-were-the-happiest-and-unhappiest-countries-of-2023/articleshow/108361220.cms https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/latest-updates/uk-i...
- defrost 3y ago
  John Oliver would very likely comment that the British are truly happy being miserable.
  - nickd2001 3y ago
    I can confirm that us Brits do like to have a good old whinge ;) A national trait that's for sure. Personally, I don't notice people whinging quite as much as they did as when I was younger, I feel possibly we've absorbed a bit of the American positive thinking mentality. But certainly wonder how this shows itself on surveys. Its quite possible that Brits when asked in a survey, say their life is "s**" then having had the fantastic privilege that day, of whinge-ing in a survey as well as to anyone around them who fancies listening, they go on their merry way, quite cheerful for having told someone extra how terrible everything is. ;)
    - defrost 3y ago
      Yeah, there was a reason you lot got dubbed whinging poms ;) It's endearing. Slice of history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfq1zCVhA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXfq1zCVhA0
thom 3y ago

Qiu_Zhanxuan 3y ago

How does Israel and Kuwait rank so high ? Did they surveyed the arab israelis and Palestinians? What about those slave workers in Kuwait ? In both case that's more than half the total population that lives in horrible conditions. Makes this whole Ranking suspicious

nf3 3y ago
- Israelis have a well-known reality-distortion field as regards their well being. - The Palestinian population, de facto subjects of the Israeli state, are most probably not included. Disclaimer: I'm an Israeli expat.
maratc 3y ago
All these studies are self-reported happiness (basically, many people answering the question "How happy do you feel today?"). Israel ranks high because large parts of the population — the religious ones, with not a lot of income but many children and a strong sense of fulfillment — are regularly and steadily self-reporting high levels of happiness. (This relates to both Jewish and Muslim citizens of Israel.) Your (or mine, or anyone's) view of their conditions don't have much influence on their everyday feelings. > Makes this whole Ranking suspicious There's nothing too suspicious about asking many people in different countries are they feeling happy on this particular day. If anything, what's looking suspicious is the premise that high levels of GDP (for whatever that means) would result in more happiness of the people.

pixelesque 3y ago

That's the "Life Evaluation" list, there are other criteria as well if you look at the full report... Large differences between age groups as well, as the report states: > Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Spain are countries where the old are now significantly happier than the young, while Portugal and Greece show the reverse pattern.

082349872349872 3y ago

For those who prefer a full list, more discussion, and the original source: https://worldhappiness.report https://worldhappiness.report