In a year in which loved ones, jobs and individual freedoms were lost in the pandemic, it would not be surprising if people around the world were most dissatisfied with their lives.
However, while mental health has declined in many countries, there has been surprising resilience in the way people assess their lives in general, according to this year’s World Happiness Report.
The happiest country in the world has also remained the same, with Finland taking the lead for the fourth consecutive year. Denmark came in second and Switzerland came in third. Iceland and the Netherlands completed the top five, while the United States ranked 19th on the list.
Finland, a small Scandinavian country with a population of around 5.5 million, has used past victories to promote tourism and promote its natural beauty.
He did relatively well during the pandemic compared to other European countries, recording a total of 805 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The country has consistently ranked high on the measures of mutual trust that helped protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic, the report said.
“For the 4th consecutive year, #Finland is the happiest country in the world,” tweeted the Embassy of Finland in the United States on Friday. “Our #felicity stems from a balanced everyday life, supported by good governance, trust, well-being and equality. The pandemic has not changed this lasting foundation.”
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Annual happiness ratings are based on citizens’ assessments of their own lives. The study uses data from the Gallup World Poll, which asks respondents to evaluate their life as a whole, imagining a ladder, with the best possible life for them as 10 and the worst possible as 0.
This year’s report specifically looked at the relationship between well-being and Covid-19. He also tries to assess how governments around the world have dealt with the coronavirus and to explain why some countries may have done better than others.
Reflecting the global nature of the pandemic and the widely shared resilience when confronted with it, Covid-19 led to only modest changes in the country’s overall happiness ranking, according to the study, which is a publication of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network of the United Nations.
“Surprisingly, there was, on average, a decline in well-being when measured by people’s own assessment of their lives,” said John Helliwell, editor of the report and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Canada.
“One possible explanation is that people see Covid-19 as a common external threat that affects everyone and that it has generated a greater sense of solidarity and solidarity,” he added.
Although people’s satisfaction with people’s lives may not have been dramatically affected by Covid-19, emotions and mental health changed during the first year of the pandemic. This year’s report paid more attention than usual to specific everyday emotions in order to track the impact of the pandemic on different aspects of life.
The study found, for example, that there was an increase of approximately 10% in the number of people who said they were worried or sad the day before.
He also assessed that there was a “big and immediate” decline in mental health in many countries when the pandemic first appeared. Average mental health improved later, but he did not recover from where he started, he added.
The report noted that not being able to work during the pandemic also had a negative impact on well-being, with unemployment associated with a 12% decline in life satisfaction.
Like everything else, the researchers’ work was also affected by the pandemic.
Gallup was unable to conduct face-to-face interviews, which were previously used by more than 75% of the countries surveyed. The switch to telephone surveys may, in some countries, have changed the number of respondents, the report added.
One issue the report grapples with is why there are such different mortality rates around the world. While there are a multitude of other reasons, trust is identified as an important factor in helping governments protect their populations from the pandemic.
Countries where people expected their lost wallets to be returned by neighbors or strangers have been associated with far fewer deaths, the report said.
In East Asia, among other places, the evidence also showed that people’s well-being improved when the government acted.
“The East Asian experience shows that strict government policies not only effectively control Covid-19, but also cushion the negative impact of daily infections on people’s happiness,” said Shun Wang, editor of the report.
