Honest equals happy

Ttitle, duly amplified, can read – an honest country is a happy one. Put another way – a country that is full of corruption will never be a happy one. That’s the broad national perspective – the one we’re talking about today. Individually, there are many corrupt people who are perfectly happy in their ignorance, or defiance, of the implications of what they’re doing, or what may greet them at the Pearly Gates. Since 2002, the World Happiness Report has used Gallup polling data from over 150 countries to determine the degree of happiness in the countries of the world. For each of the last seven years, Finland has come out top, with the Nordic countries of Europe dominating the top segment of the league. Performance is monitored in six categories: Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity of the population and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels. All six variables are then blended to create a single combined score for each country.

Measure

Excluding the quantifiable measure such as GDP, the scores are based on subjective assessments of their own well-being from a large sample of individuals in the respective countries. Using a ladder basis, selection of the top rung means ‘this category gets top marks as far as it affects my life’. And vice-versa for the bottom rung. Since more and more governments say they are prioritising the well-being of their people, all OECD countries now measure the happiness of their people. Surprisingly, and more than a decade ago, the small Asian country of Bhutan declared that the primary goal of its government was gross national happiness (GNH), not gross domestic product (GDP).

Identify

Different people, when asked to identify the criteria that contribute to happiness, will come up with different components. But without a doubt one can disaggregate those six criteria and get a warm (not the weather!) picture of life in Finland.

Interestingly, while GDP per capita is strong – 15th in the world – the population still exhibits a modest style in terms of personal assets. One house, one car is typical. A powerful influence is the social welfare provided by the State – low-cost medical care to boost life expectancy, free education at all levels and generous unemployment benefits. The word ‘trust’ comes out very strongly, especially mutual trust, with Finland lying second out of 180 countries in the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index. The low corruption level makes people happy; countries must learn from that.

With a relatively high level of financial security, distributed equitably from the high GDP per capita, you then get closer to the more subtle, but powerful contributors to happiness. Good quality social relationships undoubtedly play a big part. In a study by Oxford University that criterion was extended, especially in a work environment, to a sense of belonging. Finns have a strong community culture, including doing good deeds for one another. In 2022 the US Department of State Human Rights report recorded there being no human rights abuses in the Finnish public sector.

Happiness, when measuring its application to people, is invariably synonymous with characteristics such as decency and friendliness. And, in my experience, the entire zone called Scandinavia is dominated by decent people. Next-door, Finland is not strictly Scandinavian, but only owing to language and ethnicity The appalling 2011 massacre of 77 people in Norway, or last week’s fatal shooting by a 12-year-old in Finland itself, have no place there. I recall travelling in a bus along a narrow street in a small town in Norway and seeing families eating the evening meal without curtains drawn, fully visible to the public. No ostentation and no fear. There’s trust for you. With the last seven years to reflect on this rather special status in the world, the pride felt by the Finns for their ranking has motivated its tourism sector, especially ‘Visit Finland and Helsinki Partners’, to teach the ways of the Finnish people in five-day master classes.

Happiness

It could, nevertheless, be argued that ‘happiness’ is not the right measurement. Nowhere in the world will everyone in sight have constant ear-to-ear smiles as they pass you. Unless they’ve just won a war or have been given a massive population-wide pay rise. ‘Satisfaction’ would seem to be a far more appropriate criterion. Unfortunately, the accolade ‘the most satisfied country in the world’ would exude a degree of smugness.

So we stick to ‘happiness’ and congratulate the Finnish people. And the Finns are happy, despite a climate requiring them, half the year, to walk around in the dark, in massive coats and snow boots. And Finland has 56 000 lakes larger than one hectare, so the occasional hot day will be humid as well. But, depending on location, a mid-summer day provides 18-24 hours of daylight!

Despite their ‘happiness’, the Finnish people are viewed by their neighbours as being reserved and undemonstrative. It’s in their culture, and recorded that their fellow Nordics mock them for it; nicely of course. In Eswatini, if you meet a lone adult along the street and say ‘ube nelilanga lelihle’ (have a good day), you get a big smile and a friendly reply. In Finland – indeed in most of the so-called First World – the other person might jump off the pavement, worried stiff.