Finland tops World Happiness Report; Australia among top ten

A couple picks buttercup flowers in a field near the southern town of Kiryat Gat April 21, 2012. Reuters/Amir Cohen

Finland is the happiest place to live in, according to the World Happiness Report published on Wednesday. Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia are also included in the top ten. Australia swapped positions with Sweden, which is now in 9th place, with Australia at 10^th.

The report ranks 156 countries according to happiness levels. Published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, it also assessed 117 countries by the happiness of immigrants, since the primary focus this year is also on migration within and between countries.

Coming from fifth place last year, Finland, the Nordic country renowned as the Land of the Midnight Sun, nudged Norway into second place. Of the 5.5 million people inhabiting Finland, around 300,000 are immigrants.

Four countries, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and Finland, have held the top spot in the four most recent reports. The top nations in the World Happiness Report tend to have high values for income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.

Co-editor of the World Happiness Report John Helliwell noted that all top ten countries have the highest scores in overall happiness as well as the happiness of immigrants, adding that happiness appears contagious. He said that the most remarkable finding was the consistency between locally born’s happiness and that of immigrants.

Helliwell also pointed out that people who move to happier nations gain, while those who move to less happy countries lose. NBC News reports Happiness Research Institute CEO Meik Wiking as saying that the happiness revealed in the survey derives from healthy amounts of social security and personal freedom that outweigh residents having to pay "some of the highest taxes in the world."

The United States is not the in the top ten, with the report's authors citing factors to explain why. "The US is in the midst of a complex and worsening public health crisis, involving epidemics of obesity, opioid addiction, and major depressive disorder that are all remarkable by global standards,” the report reads.

Burundi, Central African Republic and South Sudan top the list of the least happy nations. Below is the list of the top ten least happy countries, according to the World Happiness Report 2018.