Finnish public discussion is often very critical of Finland. People keep comparing Finland to other countries and complaining how some specific thing is worse t

Finnish public discussion is often very critical of Finland. People keep comparing Finland to other countries and complaining how some specific thing is worse than in country X. That's probably a key reason Finland ranks so high here. Happiness, when measured at population level, doesn't mean intense emotions. It doesn't mean that everyone is visibly happy. It means that people are generally content with their lives, because nothing is particularly wrong for most people. If you look at the country rankings, all the usual suspects rank high: the Nordic countries, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Whenever you rank countries by some measure of success or quality of life, you expect to see those countries near the top. All of them are wealthy and not too large, and they all have a culture where the people in charge generally try to make things right. It doesn't always look like that from the inside, but when you compare them to the rest of the world, it's pretty clear why they are so successful. Especially if you try to measure success by the quality of life experienced by the middle 80% of the population.