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Happiness Measures- The Nordic Way
May is Mental Health month, and I thought it appropriate to touch on the topic of happiness. Finland was awarded 2018’s top World Happiness Country by The United Nations. The UN released its annual report ranking 156 countries, and it’s notable that Finland has either won or been within the top 10 spots for the last few years (Khan & Blau, 2018).
In fact, the top 10 spots usually include Scandinavian & Nordic countries. In addition to Finland, in the 2018 report included Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden. The only non-Scandinavian countries in the top 10 spots were Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, and New Zealand (Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs, 2018).
What do these countries have that is so unique, and that ranks them so high on the happiness scale? Apart from being Nordic, what do they have in common? I wrote about Sweden’s concept of Lagom and how they strive for balance, but I wanted to look at this in more depth. Here is what I found.
Nordic Approach to Life
Much of their approach comes from the generalized outlook of providing people as much support to live their lives in an independent manner. What I mean is that most Nordic countries, if not all, provide healthcare, maternity and paternity coverage, affordable day care, education, and housing for the elderly, among others (Partanen…
