Finland is officially the happiest country in the world for a sixth year in a row.
The idea of choosing a holiday destination based on its food, access to the sea or excellent weather is very familiar, but why not happiness?
Turning up to a city to discover it to be buzzing and full of chatty people, or finding yourself falling into engaging conversations with locals or hotel workers, can really make a holiday.
If catching a big dose of cheer is what you're after, then the place to head to is Finland, according to the World Happiness Report produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
The study assigns a happiness score on a scale of zero to 10, based on an average of data over a three-year period, using people's own assessment of their happiness, as well as economic and social data.
Finland is top of the pile once again, with a significantly higher happiness score than any other nation.
According to Frank Martela, a Finnish psychologist and philosopher, part of the reason his countryfolk are so content is due to the nation's non-competitive nature.
The common phrase “Kell’ onni on, se onnen kätkeköön" which roughly translates as "Don’t compare or brag about your happiness" sums up the easy going atmosphere in the country.
The Finns also enjoy four weeks of summer holidays a year and love the country's rugged natural landscape, with 87% of the population saying nature helped them to peaceful and relaxed.
Judging by an experiment in 2022 in which wallets were dropped in 16 cities across the world, the 11 out of 12 that were returned to their owners in Helsinki suggests Finns can trust one another.
Eight of the ten happiest nations were found in Europe, with Denmark coming in at number two followed by Iceland, Israel and the Netherlands.
The UK dropped two places this year, falling to 19th place - four spots behind the US and seven behind Australia.
A rising star in the world of happiness is Lithuania, which is the only new country in the top 20, having risen 30 places since 2017 to 20th.
Afghanistan and Lebanon, which remain gripped by violence, remain the two unhappiest countries in the world, according to the survey.
Researchers concluded that countries with a smaller happiness gap - the difference in reported emotional state between the top and bottom half of the population - are generally happier overall.
In good news for the world population at large, the number of miserable people has dropped slightly over the past few years.
As horrible as it was, the Covid pandemic also led to a big surge in benevolence, while the war in Ukraine brought about a stronger sense of common purpose and trust in Ukrainian leadership - all key components for a population's happiness.
Overall, the World Happiness Report research looks at six key factors to work out how happy people are from a given country.
They are social support, income, health, freedom, generosity, and absence of corruption.
The report has been released on the International Day of Happiness, March 20, every year since 2013.
World's top 20 happiest countries
Rankings were based on a three-year-average of life evaluation from 2020 to 2022.
- Finland, 7.804
- Denmark, 7.586
- Iceland, 7.530
- Israel, 7.473
- Netherlands., 7.403
- Sweden, 7.395
- Norway, 7.315
- Switzerland, 7.240
- Luxembourg, 7.228
- New Zealand, 7.123
- Austria, 7.097
- Australia, 7.095
- Canada, 6.961
- Ireland, 6.911
- United States, 6.894
- Germany, 6.892
- Belgium, 6.859
- Czechia, 6.845
- United Kingdom, 6.796
- Lithuania, 6.763
The full rankings can be viewed on the World Happiness Report website.
