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World Happiness Report 2026

134 points by ChrisArchitect 8mo ago

alstonite 8mo ago
It’s interesting to see a country’s internal rank of its own happiness against how I would rank them using my worldview. Israel for example seems like a place that would be fairly unhappy right now given world events, but they rank quite highly. Saudi Arabia also sticks out as unexpected. It seems in the media I hear about their government being quite oppressive (especially against women), so seeing them just above the US is surprising.
- deadbabe 8mo ago
  In Israel they use happiness as a rebellion. You try to kill them, you say what you want, but they don’t care, they stay happy. It fuels their enemy’s rage.
  - myth_drannon 8mo ago
    Yes, maybe. It's the old jewish way of dealing with being powerless in exile. You try to hit us, we smile and joke. It's not healthy. I think it's now more about gaining power as a nation and not being at the mercy of those who seek to destroy us.
  - 10xDev 8mo ago
    No they just call you an antisemite and ask America to bomb you.
    - magic_hamster 8mo ago
      Not really? The current conflict with Iran is entirely a joint venture where Israel is taking on a significant portion. In previous conflicts the US was marginally involved and even pushed Israel to stop fighting entirely. I don't think you have a good grasp on these events.
- whoknowsidont 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - honeycrispy 8mo ago
    Too bad there's no one to shield Israel's neighbors from experiencing the consequence of theirs, eh?
    - whoknowsidont 8mo ago
      https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1ry2kwr/the_moment_israel_targeted_rt_journalist_steve/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1ry2kwr/the_moment... Exciting stuff!
      - whoknowsidont 8mo ago
        lol at the parent comment being flagged. Being factual is really problematic on this site, ain't it?
- card_zero 8mo ago
  Perhaps all the Saudi men are very happy.
- myth_drannon 8mo ago
  It had a huge drop in positive emotions due to the war with Gaza in 2023. Actually, negative emotions were higher than positive which is sad and expected. But the index includes many metrics that don't change rapidly like GDP, life expactancy.. so any short conflict will not have outsized effect.
  - magic_hamster 8mo ago
    There might have been a huge drop due to the atrocities on October 7th which caused the Gaza war.
  - mvdtnz 8mo ago
    > But the index includes many metrics that don't change rapidly like GDP, life expactancy.. No it does not. It's one question without regard to GDP, life expectancy or anything else.
- dannyphantom 8mo ago
  IMO, everyone on Earth has to reconcile with their current circumstances and make the choice to go about life with a positive or negative disposition in spite of those circumstances.
- scythe 8mo ago
  Another big surprise is Mexico. It seems like every day there's another gory story about a bunch of people disappearing or getting shot in a gang war. But they're the second-highest ranked in North America at #12, behind only Costa Rica. Israel I think is similar to Costa Rica in that whatever problems Israelis have, they look around at their neighbors and realize how much worse it could be.
  - bombcar 8mo ago
    Maybe they're ranking themselves so high because they're not in the "bunch of people gorily disappeared."
- 10xDev 8mo ago
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- nradov 8mo ago
  Do the Saudi Arabia numbers count all of the foreign workers who are brought in to do the dirty jobs for low wages and treated like dogs? Or are only citizens counted?
ranger_danger 8mo ago
Endless captcha loops for me whenever I click on a chapter. Not using any VPN or proxy, no CF DNS, nothing like that.
- stabbles 8mo ago
  https://files.worldhappiness.report/WHR26.pdf https://files.worldhappiness.report/WHR26.pdf
stabbles 8mo ago
You would think that Finland's unemployment rate (10%+) would influence its ranking, but that's not the case at all.
- avgDev 8mo ago
  Nordic countries have better safety nets. I haven't travelled there but I grew up in Poland and still visit. US feels very capitalistic to me. I feel the pace is slower in Poland. In US I feel the need to produce. Might be just me.
  - brailsafe 8mo ago
    This is how I feel as a Canadian. It's just a border between us, we've got issues of our own but on one side life seems much more transactional and individualistic in a somewhat repulsive way. I'm sure it's not unique to them, and I'm sure it's not uniformly pervasive. I rarely feel like a true foreigner while I'm in the country, but there's just this unsettling feeling of distrust coupled with a drive to consume that I don't feel when I'm north of the border.
- PowerElectronix 8mo ago
  As it's selfreporting and it's more about expectations than actual happiness a finnish dude only needs to think that life is just incredible compared to what he sees at the other side of the border to selfreport a 10 in happiness
  - lostmsu 8mo ago
    Could also explain Israel
- renewiltord 8mo ago
  Well, that's just inherent in the question which asks someone to imagine the best possible life vs. the worst possible life. In a society with lots of room to grow you aren't at the higher rungs. In a society with no progress possible you're at the top easily.
bigtones 8mo ago
FYI: This world happiness report is entirely based on asking just one obtuse question, which does not even have the word happiness in the actual question: 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?
- dismalaf 8mo ago
  Canada here. Feels like we're barely hanging on to rung 5 or 6 and about to fall to the bottom. Quantifiable example: most recent jobs report we lost 100k+ full time jobs. Biggest job less since COVID. Or the fact our increase in GDP per capita is the (second?) worst in the OECD in the last 10 years. Worse than Japan, Italy, the UK and all the other laggards...
  - SECProto 8mo ago
    Also Canada, and I disagree pretty strongly with your post. Those two statistics have little bearing on happiness. Housing costs and healthcare access are much bigger concerns.
    - dismalaf 8mo ago
      > healthcare access What healthcare access? My family has had to go abroad for surgeries twice in the last 3 years because there's no access to healthcare here... And housing prices? My sister bought a mansion in Texas for less than a condo here. Arguably these two data points are even worse for Canada. Either way our ranking is dropping.
      - SECProto 8mo ago
        I'm saying that data (not anecdotes) on those would've been better justification for your ranking. That said, for most people, going abroad for surgery or to buy a home is not an option.
mjdiloreto 8mo ago
> On average, heavy social media use (more than five hours per day) is associated with lower wellbeing. Heavy users are significantly more likely to report higher stress and depressive symptoms, and believe they are worse off than their parents, compared with non- or moderate users. I like this framing of social media use in the same terms as drug use. There are significant risks to this activity that so many people are ambivalent toward. Depression is not a condition you want to have, and here's this activity that causes it (or at least significantly contributes to it). And yet, so many persist!
- crossbody 8mo ago
  You quote correlation and then jump to causation. Any high quality evidence for causation that make you confident it's not depression that drives SM use (or something else entirely driving both)?
myth_drannon 8mo ago
It's sad to see Canada drop so much, as much as Congo, Malawi and a bunch of other war torn places.
- throw0101d 8mo ago
  Young people with difficult housing affordability and general high cost of living is dragging down the score. Boomers that own their homes are more satisfied: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaUBC22o4&t=4m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaUBC22o4&t=4m13s
  - 9rx 8mo ago
    Except the biggest drop was among teenage girls. Housing affordability and cost of living isn't usually yet a concern to most teenagers, and to the extent that it is a concern, it is equally a concern to teenage boys who haven't felt the same decline in happiness.
    - bombcar 8mo ago
      I suspect you're right, in general, but teenage girls may also be more susceptible to "future worry" than the boys are. Tell the girls that housing will be unobtainable and they start worrying; tell the boys and they laugh. Not saying it's the case (and it's likely that the cause is more social than financial) but it could be.
    - throw0101d 8mo ago
      > Except the biggest drop was among teenage girls. Even if it is the biggest drop it is not the only drop.
      - 9rx 8mo ago
        Right — teenage girls have long been considered to be leading indicator in cultural shifts. So it isn't unexpected that when teenage girls become unhappy that everyone else will slowly start to follow them. It is quite likely that it is going to look a lot worse the next time this evaluation takes place. But the question is what is it that the teenage girls are seeing that the rest of us are slowly catching up in realizing? The most popular answer is the current social media landscape is creating unhappiness in them (and ultimately the rest of us), but that's the answer given for all woes these days... Again, it's probably not housing or cost of living. While it is fair to say that teenage girls are not completely removed for that, they're generally not the ones who have to actually face it head on, and these have been considered pressing issues in Canada since before those teenage girls were born! If that made people unhappy, they'd have been unhappy for a long time already.
mvdtnz 8mo ago
If you only followed my country's subreddit (New Zealand) you would believe we live in hell, it's the most miserable time in our nation's history and nobody has a future here. Of course this doesn't resonate at all with my own personal experience in my life. We rank 11th, unchanged year on year.
weisnobody 8mo ago
Well, someone once tried to get happiness classified as a psychiatric disorder: * https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ (1992) The abstract: “ It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.”
- temp0826 8mo ago
  I guess a Buddhist point of view would be that any emotion/feeling should not be held on to. (It is best to feel and let all things pass, I think, but to consider it a disorder to "hold on" to happiness doesn't seem right...I am not well-read enough about it to know if it can in fact cause suffering)
  - roenxi 8mo ago
    Yes. The argument is something like at some point in the future the conditions causing the happiness will be gone (probably quite soon, happiness is fleeting) and so will the feeling. If that transition away from happiness upsets you then it will cause suffering so you shouldn't cling to it. There's a related sutta (MN87) with some dicussion about how love, which is generally an even more pleasent feeling than happiness, causes suffering if clung to because we are all inevitably separated from our loved ones.
- onraglanroad 8mo ago
  I think that's more of an attempt to get a lack of a sense of humour classified as a psychiatric disorder.
- pegasus 8mo ago
  I have a feeling our collective leg is being pulled: "The behavioural components of happiness are less easily characterised but particular facial expressions such as 'smiling' have been noted" "Certainly, if television soap operas in any way reflect real life, happiness is a very rare phenomenon indeed in places as far apart as Manchester, the East End of London and Australia. Interestingly, despite all the uncertainty about the epidemiology of happiness, there is some evidence that it is unevenly distributed amongst the social classes: individuals in the higher socio-economic groupings generally report greater positive affect which may reflect the fact that they are more frequently exposed to environmental risk factors for happiness." ...pretty hilarious if you ask me :)
erelong 8mo ago
I think social media is being wrongly made in to a scapegoat Rather, social media mis-use is a symptom of young people having a lack of things like "third spaces" to go to to socialize at, of not having meaningful work or volunteer opportunities, of lacking certain other things that may have existed in the past. Social media offers a new engaging experiment that fills the void of some of these things that don't exist elsewhere otherwise but doesn't act as an equivalent replacement
- chalupa-supreme 8mo ago
  Social media companies are actors that actively compete for the attention of young people. That does result in collapsing third spaces and social events because it’s easier/cheaper to just post on IG or hang out on discord.
- travisgriggs 8mo ago
  Are you positing that not-young people aren’t suffering from the same?
- genghisjahn 8mo ago
  I was not an athlete growing up. Didn't do much in organized sports. But all three of my kids play a team sport. It does wonders for them. I really helped them get out of the pandemic. But having them outside several hours a week, working with peers and other adults, practicing new skills. Really cool to see and I think it really helped their mental health (and by extension, my own).
  - yoyohello13 8mo ago
    Yes! I do think playing team sports (for kids and adults) is incredible for mental health. Exercise, learning new skills and socialization all rolled into one fun package. I honestly think that's why Crossfit has become popular. It's essentially an after school sport for adults.
- alephnan 8mo ago
  Because of social media, there are less teenagers hanging out at the malls. Shops close down. It forms a feedback loop
contingencies 8mo ago
Speak to anyone in China and they're less happy this year because the economy is heavily depressed. This is not reflected in the chart. COVID doesn't even appear on most countries' charts despite huge impact globally. I am very skeptical of their process if it results in such questionable macro-narratives. I wonder if their interviewees are "business owners capable of answering the phone in English" or some similarly skewed dataset.
Archit3ch 8mo ago
As a foreigner living in Finland, people here don't necessarily have more, but they behave like the proverbial fisherman. An ambitious CEO moves to a small coastal town, living right on the beach to "optimize his lifestyle." Every evening, he sees a local fisherman sitting on his deck, playing guitar and watching the sunset with his family. After a week, the CEO approaches the fisherman and says, "You know, if you spent less time playing guitar and more time fishing, you could buy a second boat." The fisherman asks, "Why would I do that?" "To catch more fish, sell them, and buy a whole fleet! Then you'd be rich," says the CEO. "And then?" asks the fisherman. "Then you could retire, move to a quiet beach, and play guitar all evening!" The fisherman smiles and says, "What do you think I'm doing right now, while you're trying to figure out the ROI on my hobby?"
- mazsa 8mo ago
  "14 1 Now, there was a certain Cineas, a man of Thessaly, with a reputation for great wisdom, who had been a pupil of Demosthenes the orator, and was quite the only public speaker of his day who was thought to remind his hearers, as a statue might, of that great orator's power and ability. Associating p387 himself with Pyrrhus, and sent by him as ambassador to the cities, he confirmed the saying of Euripides, to wit, "all can be won by eloquence That even the sword of warring enemies might gain." 2 At any rate, Pyrrhus used to say that more cities had been won for him by the eloquence of Cineas than by his own arms; and he continued to hold Cineas in especial honour and to demand his services. It was this Cineas, then, who, seeing that Pyrrhus was eagerly preparing an expedition at this time to Italy, and finding him at leisure for the moment, drew him into the following discourse. "The Romans, O Pyrrhus, are said to be good fighters, and to be rulers of many warlike nations; if, then, Heaven should permit us to conquer these men, how should we use our victory?" 3 And Pyrrhus said: "Thy question, O Cineas, really needs no answer; the Romans once conquered, there is neither barbarian nor Greek city there which is a match for us, but we shall at once possess all Italy, the great size and richness and importance of which no man should know better than thyself." After a little pause, then, Cineas said: "And after taking Italy, O King, what are we to do?" 4 And Pyrrhus, not yet perceiving his intention, replied: "Sicily is near, and holds out her hands to us, an island abounding in wealth and men, and very easy to capture, for all is faction there, her cities have no government, and demagogues are rampant now that Agathocles is gone." "What thou sayest," replied Cineas, "is probably true; but will our expedition stop with the taking of Sicily?" 5 "Heaven grant us," said Pyrrhus, p389 "victory and success so far; and we will make these contests but the preliminaries of great enterprises. For who could keep his hands off Libya, or Carthage, when that city got within his reach, a city which Agathocles, slipping stealthily out of Syracuse and crossing the sea with a few ships, narrowly missed taking? And when we have become masters here, no one of the enemies who now treat us with scorn will offer further resistance; there is no need of saying that." 6 "None whatever," said Cineas, "for it is plain that with so great a power we shall be able to recover Macedonia and rule Greece securely. But when we have got everything subject to us, what are we going to do?" Then Pyrrhus smiled upon him and said: "We shall be much at ease, and we'll drink bumpers, my good man, every day, and we'll gladden one another's hearts with confidential talks." 7 And now that Cineas had brought Pyrrhus to this point in the argument, he said: "Then what stands in our way now if we want to drink bumpers and while away the time with one another? Surely this privilege is ours already, and we have at hand, without taking any trouble, those things to which we hope to attain by bloodshed and great toils and perils, after doing much harm to others and suffering much ourselves." 8 By this reasoning of Cineas Pyrrhus was more troubled than he was converted; he saw plainly what great happiness he was leaving behind him, but was unable to renounce his hopes of what he eagerly desired." https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/pyrrhus*.html https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/...
olegp 8mo ago
If you happen to be based in the capital of the happiest country in the world and want to be even happier, we have a Hacker News meetup: http://bit.ly/helsinkihn http://bit.ly/helsinkihn
cybergenesis631 8mo ago
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YorickPeterse 8mo ago
Considering the state of The Netherlands over the last two decades, I can't help but feel this report is straight up bullshit. The only way I can see The Netherlands rank this high is by only asking two people and some sheep in the middle of nowhere.
- drukenemo 8mo ago
  Besides the housing problems, what would you say are the biggest developments in the Netherlands over two decades?
  - YorickPeterse 8mo ago
    An increase in right-wing extremism and racism, public transportation that is falling apart and ridiculously expensive, the water quality going downhill due to pollution, costs increasing far more than neighboring countries for seemingly no solid reason, a complete disregard for the climate and the EU regulations we're supposed to meet, and a lot more.
sebaakot25 8mo ago
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vivzkestrel 8mo ago
- Major reminder that the world happiness report is a sham https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-world-happiness-report-is-a-sham https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-world-happiness-report...
kwar13 8mo ago
Crazy to see Afghanistan at the bottom and Iran is not even on the list.
- raymakirahba 8mo ago
  Iran is there - #97

134 points by ChrisArchitect 8mo ago

It’s interesting to see a country’s internal rank of its own happiness against how I would rank them using my worldview. Israel for example seems like a place that would be fairly unhappy right now given world events, but they rank quite highly. Saudi Arabia also sticks out as unexpected. It seems in the media I hear about their government being quite oppressive (especially against women), so seeing them just above the US is surprising.

deadbabe 8mo ago
In Israel they use happiness as a rebellion. You try to kill them, you say what you want, but they don’t care, they stay happy. It fuels their enemy’s rage.
- myth_drannon 8mo ago
  Yes, maybe. It's the old jewish way of dealing with being powerless in exile. You try to hit us, we smile and joke. It's not healthy. I think it's now more about gaining power as a nation and not being at the mercy of those who seek to destroy us.
- 10xDev 8mo ago
  No they just call you an antisemite and ask America to bomb you.
  - magic_hamster 8mo ago
    Not really? The current conflict with Iran is entirely a joint venture where Israel is taking on a significant portion. In previous conflicts the US was marginally involved and even pushed Israel to stop fighting entirely. I don't think you have a good grasp on these events.
whoknowsidont 8mo ago
[flagged]
- honeycrispy 8mo ago
  Too bad there's no one to shield Israel's neighbors from experiencing the consequence of theirs, eh?
  - whoknowsidont 8mo ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1ry2kwr/the_moment_israel_targeted_rt_journalist_steve/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1ry2kwr/the_moment... Exciting stuff!
    - whoknowsidont 8mo ago
      lol at the parent comment being flagged. Being factual is really problematic on this site, ain't it?
card_zero 8mo ago
Perhaps all the Saudi men are very happy.
myth_drannon 8mo ago
It had a huge drop in positive emotions due to the war with Gaza in 2023. Actually, negative emotions were higher than positive which is sad and expected. But the index includes many metrics that don't change rapidly like GDP, life expactancy.. so any short conflict will not have outsized effect.
- magic_hamster 8mo ago
  There might have been a huge drop due to the atrocities on October 7th which caused the Gaza war.
- mvdtnz 8mo ago
  > But the index includes many metrics that don't change rapidly like GDP, life expactancy.. No it does not. It's one question without regard to GDP, life expectancy or anything else.
dannyphantom 8mo ago
IMO, everyone on Earth has to reconcile with their current circumstances and make the choice to go about life with a positive or negative disposition in spite of those circumstances.
scythe 8mo ago
Another big surprise is Mexico. It seems like every day there's another gory story about a bunch of people disappearing or getting shot in a gang war. But they're the second-highest ranked in North America at #12, behind only Costa Rica. Israel I think is similar to Costa Rica in that whatever problems Israelis have, they look around at their neighbors and realize how much worse it could be.
- bombcar 8mo ago
  Maybe they're ranking themselves so high because they're not in the "bunch of people gorily disappeared."
10xDev 8mo ago
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nradov 8mo ago
Do the Saudi Arabia numbers count all of the foreign workers who are brought in to do the dirty jobs for low wages and treated like dogs? Or are only citizens counted?

ranger_danger 8mo ago

Endless captcha loops for me whenever I click on a chapter. Not using any VPN or proxy, no CF DNS, nothing like that.

stabbles 8mo ago
https://files.worldhappiness.report/WHR26.pdf https://files.worldhappiness.report/WHR26.pdf

stabbles 8mo ago

You would think that Finland's unemployment rate (10%+) would influence its ranking, but that's not the case at all.

avgDev 8mo ago
Nordic countries have better safety nets. I haven't travelled there but I grew up in Poland and still visit. US feels very capitalistic to me. I feel the pace is slower in Poland. In US I feel the need to produce. Might be just me.
- brailsafe 8mo ago
  This is how I feel as a Canadian. It's just a border between us, we've got issues of our own but on one side life seems much more transactional and individualistic in a somewhat repulsive way. I'm sure it's not unique to them, and I'm sure it's not uniformly pervasive. I rarely feel like a true foreigner while I'm in the country, but there's just this unsettling feeling of distrust coupled with a drive to consume that I don't feel when I'm north of the border.
PowerElectronix 8mo ago
As it's selfreporting and it's more about expectations than actual happiness a finnish dude only needs to think that life is just incredible compared to what he sees at the other side of the border to selfreport a 10 in happiness
- lostmsu 8mo ago
  Could also explain Israel
renewiltord 8mo ago
Well, that's just inherent in the question which asks someone to imagine the best possible life vs. the worst possible life. In a society with lots of room to grow you aren't at the higher rungs. In a society with no progress possible you're at the top easily.

bigtones 8mo ago

FYI: This world happiness report is entirely based on asking just one obtuse question, which does not even have the word happiness in the actual question: 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?

dismalaf 8mo ago
Canada here. Feels like we're barely hanging on to rung 5 or 6 and about to fall to the bottom. Quantifiable example: most recent jobs report we lost 100k+ full time jobs. Biggest job less since COVID. Or the fact our increase in GDP per capita is the (second?) worst in the OECD in the last 10 years. Worse than Japan, Italy, the UK and all the other laggards...
- SECProto 8mo ago
  Also Canada, and I disagree pretty strongly with your post. Those two statistics have little bearing on happiness. Housing costs and healthcare access are much bigger concerns.
  - dismalaf 8mo ago
    > healthcare access What healthcare access? My family has had to go abroad for surgeries twice in the last 3 years because there's no access to healthcare here... And housing prices? My sister bought a mansion in Texas for less than a condo here. Arguably these two data points are even worse for Canada. Either way our ranking is dropping.
    - SECProto 8mo ago
      I'm saying that data (not anecdotes) on those would've been better justification for your ranking. That said, for most people, going abroad for surgery or to buy a home is not an option.

mjdiloreto 8mo ago

> On average, heavy social media use (more than five hours per day) is associated with lower wellbeing. Heavy users are significantly more likely to report higher stress and depressive symptoms, and believe they are worse off than their parents, compared with non- or moderate users. I like this framing of social media use in the same terms as drug use. There are significant risks to this activity that so many people are ambivalent toward. Depression is not a condition you want to have, and here's this activity that causes it (or at least significantly contributes to it). And yet, so many persist!

crossbody 8mo ago
You quote correlation and then jump to causation. Any high quality evidence for causation that make you confident it's not depression that drives SM use (or something else entirely driving both)?

myth_drannon 8mo ago

It's sad to see Canada drop so much, as much as Congo, Malawi and a bunch of other war torn places.

throw0101d 8mo ago
Young people with difficult housing affordability and general high cost of living is dragging down the score. Boomers that own their homes are more satisfied: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaUBC22o4&t=4m13s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dizaUBC22o4&t=4m13s
- 9rx 8mo ago
  Except the biggest drop was among teenage girls. Housing affordability and cost of living isn't usually yet a concern to most teenagers, and to the extent that it is a concern, it is equally a concern to teenage boys who haven't felt the same decline in happiness.
  - bombcar 8mo ago
    I suspect you're right, in general, but teenage girls may also be more susceptible to "future worry" than the boys are. Tell the girls that housing will be unobtainable and they start worrying; tell the boys and they laugh. Not saying it's the case (and it's likely that the cause is more social than financial) but it could be.
  - throw0101d 8mo ago
    > Except the biggest drop was among teenage girls. Even if it is the biggest drop it is not the only drop.
    - 9rx 8mo ago
      Right — teenage girls have long been considered to be leading indicator in cultural shifts. So it isn't unexpected that when teenage girls become unhappy that everyone else will slowly start to follow them. It is quite likely that it is going to look a lot worse the next time this evaluation takes place. But the question is what is it that the teenage girls are seeing that the rest of us are slowly catching up in realizing? The most popular answer is the current social media landscape is creating unhappiness in them (and ultimately the rest of us), but that's the answer given for all woes these days... Again, it's probably not housing or cost of living. While it is fair to say that teenage girls are not completely removed for that, they're generally not the ones who have to actually face it head on, and these have been considered pressing issues in Canada since before those teenage girls were born! If that made people unhappy, they'd have been unhappy for a long time already.

mvdtnz 8mo ago

If you only followed my country's subreddit (New Zealand) you would believe we live in hell, it's the most miserable time in our nation's history and nobody has a future here. Of course this doesn't resonate at all with my own personal experience in my life. We rank 11th, unchanged year on year.

weisnobody 8mo ago

Well, someone once tried to get happiness classified as a psychiatric disorder: * https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1376114/ (1992) The abstract: “ It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains--that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.”

temp0826 8mo ago
I guess a Buddhist point of view would be that any emotion/feeling should not be held on to. (It is best to feel and let all things pass, I think, but to consider it a disorder to "hold on" to happiness doesn't seem right...I am not well-read enough about it to know if it can in fact cause suffering)
- roenxi 8mo ago
  Yes. The argument is something like at some point in the future the conditions causing the happiness will be gone (probably quite soon, happiness is fleeting) and so will the feeling. If that transition away from happiness upsets you then it will cause suffering so you shouldn't cling to it. There's a related sutta (MN87) with some dicussion about how love, which is generally an even more pleasent feeling than happiness, causes suffering if clung to because we are all inevitably separated from our loved ones.
onraglanroad 8mo ago
I think that's more of an attempt to get a lack of a sense of humour classified as a psychiatric disorder.
pegasus 8mo ago
I have a feeling our collective leg is being pulled: "The behavioural components of happiness are less easily characterised but particular facial expressions such as 'smiling' have been noted" "Certainly, if television soap operas in any way reflect real life, happiness is a very rare phenomenon indeed in places as far apart as Manchester, the East End of London and Australia. Interestingly, despite all the uncertainty about the epidemiology of happiness, there is some evidence that it is unevenly distributed amongst the social classes: individuals in the higher socio-economic groupings generally report greater positive affect which may reflect the fact that they are more frequently exposed to environmental risk factors for happiness." ...pretty hilarious if you ask me :)

erelong 8mo ago

I think social media is being wrongly made in to a scapegoat Rather, social media mis-use is a symptom of young people having a lack of things like "third spaces" to go to to socialize at, of not having meaningful work or volunteer opportunities, of lacking certain other things that may have existed in the past. Social media offers a new engaging experiment that fills the void of some of these things that don't exist elsewhere otherwise but doesn't act as an equivalent replacement

chalupa-supreme 8mo ago
Social media companies are actors that actively compete for the attention of young people. That does result in collapsing third spaces and social events because it’s easier/cheaper to just post on IG or hang out on discord.
travisgriggs 8mo ago
Are you positing that not-young people aren’t suffering from the same?
genghisjahn 8mo ago
I was not an athlete growing up. Didn't do much in organized sports. But all three of my kids play a team sport. It does wonders for them. I really helped them get out of the pandemic. But having them outside several hours a week, working with peers and other adults, practicing new skills. Really cool to see and I think it really helped their mental health (and by extension, my own).
- yoyohello13 8mo ago
  Yes! I do think playing team sports (for kids and adults) is incredible for mental health. Exercise, learning new skills and socialization all rolled into one fun package. I honestly think that's why Crossfit has become popular. It's essentially an after school sport for adults.
alephnan 8mo ago
Because of social media, there are less teenagers hanging out at the malls. Shops close down. It forms a feedback loop

contingencies 8mo ago

Speak to anyone in China and they're less happy this year because the economy is heavily depressed. This is not reflected in the chart. COVID doesn't even appear on most countries' charts despite huge impact globally. I am very skeptical of their process if it results in such questionable macro-narratives. I wonder if their interviewees are "business owners capable of answering the phone in English" or some similarly skewed dataset.

Archit3ch 8mo ago

As a foreigner living in Finland, people here don't necessarily have more, but they behave like the proverbial fisherman. An ambitious CEO moves to a small coastal town, living right on the beach to "optimize his lifestyle." Every evening, he sees a local fisherman sitting on his deck, playing guitar and watching the sunset with his family. After a week, the CEO approaches the fisherman and says, "You know, if you spent less time playing guitar and more time fishing, you could buy a second boat." The fisherman asks, "Why would I do that?" "To catch more fish, sell them, and buy a whole fleet! Then you'd be rich," says the CEO. "And then?" asks the fisherman. "Then you could retire, move to a quiet beach, and play guitar all evening!" The fisherman smiles and says, "What do you think I'm doing right now, while you're trying to figure out the ROI on my hobby?"

mazsa 8mo ago
"14 1 Now, there was a certain Cineas, a man of Thessaly, with a reputation for great wisdom, who had been a pupil of Demosthenes the orator, and was quite the only public speaker of his day who was thought to remind his hearers, as a statue might, of that great orator's power and ability. Associating p387 himself with Pyrrhus, and sent by him as ambassador to the cities, he confirmed the saying of Euripides, to wit, "all can be won by eloquence That even the sword of warring enemies might gain." 2 At any rate, Pyrrhus used to say that more cities had been won for him by the eloquence of Cineas than by his own arms; and he continued to hold Cineas in especial honour and to demand his services. It was this Cineas, then, who, seeing that Pyrrhus was eagerly preparing an expedition at this time to Italy, and finding him at leisure for the moment, drew him into the following discourse. "The Romans, O Pyrrhus, are said to be good fighters, and to be rulers of many warlike nations; if, then, Heaven should permit us to conquer these men, how should we use our victory?" 3 And Pyrrhus said: "Thy question, O Cineas, really needs no answer; the Romans once conquered, there is neither barbarian nor Greek city there which is a match for us, but we shall at once possess all Italy, the great size and richness and importance of which no man should know better than thyself." After a little pause, then, Cineas said: "And after taking Italy, O King, what are we to do?" 4 And Pyrrhus, not yet perceiving his intention, replied: "Sicily is near, and holds out her hands to us, an island abounding in wealth and men, and very easy to capture, for all is faction there, her cities have no government, and demagogues are rampant now that Agathocles is gone." "What thou sayest," replied Cineas, "is probably true; but will our expedition stop with the taking of Sicily?" 5 "Heaven grant us," said Pyrrhus, p389 "victory and success so far; and we will make these contests but the preliminaries of great enterprises. For who could keep his hands off Libya, or Carthage, when that city got within his reach, a city which Agathocles, slipping stealthily out of Syracuse and crossing the sea with a few ships, narrowly missed taking? And when we have become masters here, no one of the enemies who now treat us with scorn will offer further resistance; there is no need of saying that." 6 "None whatever," said Cineas, "for it is plain that with so great a power we shall be able to recover Macedonia and rule Greece securely. But when we have got everything subject to us, what are we going to do?" Then Pyrrhus smiled upon him and said: "We shall be much at ease, and we'll drink bumpers, my good man, every day, and we'll gladden one another's hearts with confidential talks." 7 And now that Cineas had brought Pyrrhus to this point in the argument, he said: "Then what stands in our way now if we want to drink bumpers and while away the time with one another? Surely this privilege is ours already, and we have at hand, without taking any trouble, those things to which we hope to attain by bloodshed and great toils and perils, after doing much harm to others and suffering much ourselves." 8 By this reasoning of Cineas Pyrrhus was more troubled than he was converted; he saw plainly what great happiness he was leaving behind him, but was unable to renounce his hopes of what he eagerly desired." https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/pyrrhus*.html https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/...

olegp 8mo ago

If you happen to be based in the capital of the happiest country in the world and want to be even happier, we have a Hacker News meetup: http://bit.ly/helsinkihn http://bit.ly/helsinkihn

cybergenesis631 8mo ago

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YorickPeterse 8mo ago

Considering the state of The Netherlands over the last two decades, I can't help but feel this report is straight up bullshit. The only way I can see The Netherlands rank this high is by only asking two people and some sheep in the middle of nowhere.

drukenemo 8mo ago
Besides the housing problems, what would you say are the biggest developments in the Netherlands over two decades?
- YorickPeterse 8mo ago
  An increase in right-wing extremism and racism, public transportation that is falling apart and ridiculously expensive, the water quality going downhill due to pollution, costs increasing far more than neighboring countries for seemingly no solid reason, a complete disregard for the climate and the EU regulations we're supposed to meet, and a lot more.

sebaakot25 8mo ago

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vivzkestrel 8mo ago

- Major reminder that the world happiness report is a sham https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-world-happiness-report-is-a-sham https://writing.yaschamounk.com/p/the-world-happiness-report...

kwar13 8mo ago

Crazy to see Afghanistan at the bottom and Iran is not even on the list.

raymakirahba 8mo ago
Iran is there - #97