In 2024, Finland has been ranked the happiest country in the world for the 7th consecutive time by the World Happiness Report. Recently, I had the chance to travel to Finland on my summer vacations. I was really excited and intrigued by what makes this Nordic country the happiest in the world.

To give an overview, Finland is a very cold country that lies in the northern part of Europe. Even though these rankings are measured based on six factors: levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption, I believe that there must be more things that contribute to the overall happiness of a country. In my opinion, social satisfaction plays a huge role in determining a person's happiness.

The first thing that I noticed during my time in Finland was how warm the community really was. The way they had fun chats over breakfast or coffee (they like coffee a lot) was not something that is very common in other fast-paced countries in today's era. We went clubbing at night, and even there, I felt that the people were really non-judgmental. I made a few friends there overnight, and I didn't feel isolated at all. Finnish people are very punctual and modest. Now they don't have the most lavish lifestyle out of all countries, but they are happy to live a "normal" way of life just like other people around them. Economic security also plays a huge factor in their happiness.

The best part of being in a cold country is the amount of fun activities you can do there. It's surreal how you can just go for a walk in the forest covered with snow all around. My time in Finland would have been incomplete without all the activities we did there. I went to do ice fishing with a few of my friends. Even though some people there think that it's a boring activity, I really enjoyed it a lot. I feel that it's not the actual activity we were doing that was the best part. But there was something very therapeutic about just being in nature alone or with family or friends. 

Another very common activity there, is cold exposure, followed by a sauna. Fun fact: Finland has a population of 5.5 million people, with around 3.3 million saunas. Many reports have shown how saunas are linked to improved immune function, improved sleep, and stress management. This may be one of the reasons for their happiness.

To me, a big factor that contributed to their happiness seemed to be TRUST. Trust in the government, trust in society, trust in other people, and basically trust in everything, thinking everything will be alright. This is something that I don't usually see in other countries.

During my time there in Finland, my mental health improved a lot. And mental health goes hand in hand with happiness. Now I can't say for sure if it was because of just travelling to a new place or if there was something really magical about Finland that made it special. Whatever it was, one thing I can say for sure is how much I enjoyed the trip, and I would absolutely love to go there again another time.