What makes Finland the world’s happiest country

Named the world’s happiest country for the ninth year running, Finland offers a compelling lesson in how nature, trust and simple daily rituals can shape a richer way of life

The Nordic country of Finland doesn’t seem an obvious contender for the happiest nation on the planet. It is dark and seriously cold for most of its long winter, its ocean beaches are all on the Baltic Sea, which is chilly almost all year, and it shares a somewhat tense 1,340-kilometre border with an increasingly hostile Russia. Yet the World Happiness Report 2026 recently ranked Finland the World’s Happiest Country for the ninth year running. So what’s all the fuss about?

Nature is nurture

Finns believe – and as a Finland devotee I concur – that the main driver of their happiness is their super-healthy connection with nature. The country boasts more than 220,000 islands, more than 168,000 lakes and 80 per cent of the land is covered by forest. Finland’s 5.6 million people make the most of these natural assets whatever the weather. 

The landscapes have a palpable, bewitching energy. There’s a magic in the tranquil fir-tree forests and on the sublime granite islands, some of them just big enough for a blanket and a smoked fish picnic. Whether you’re in the Arctic or the Åland Islands, the lure of the outdoors is irresistible. 

The easiest way to access all this is from a country cabin or mökki. About a fifth of the population owns a mökki. In winter they camp out there to snowshoe through forests, ski, skate and snowmobile across frozen lakes, poach themselves in their sauna and plunge into frigid water through a hole cut in the lake ice. In summer they explore islands in rowing boats and watch the sun set at 11pm – or not at all if their mökki is far enough north to witness the Midnight Sun.

Find your happy place

I rent a mökki from a Finnish friend almost every year and he tells me it is his happy place. This is where his family’s best memories were made, created by simple pleasures such as hearing the breeze through the pines and the twitter of returning birds in spring, eating on the boat jetty in summer, foraging for mushrooms and berries in autumn, and ice-swimming in winter.

It’s where some of my best travel memories have been made, too: crunching over frozen lakes, rolling in snow just outside the sauna, sipping hot blueberry juice by a roaring log fire and watching spectacular Northern Lights. This is the one place on the planet where I can completely disconnect. I watch snow falling for hours as a kind of meditation and hear no human-made sound apart from the odd snowmobile a kilometre or two out on the ice. 

Finland is littered with such natural sanctuaries.

Safe and secure

Finland’s Ambassador to Australia, Arto Haapea, knows these sanctuaries and describes Finnish happiness well: “We enjoy the smaller things in life – an evening in the sauna with friends, or a quiet walk in the forest,” he tells me.

Ambassador Haapea also explains another source of happiness: “Many of us Finns don’t build lives where happiness needs to announce itself loudly. We build ones where – through the throes of life – things work, people feel secure and they trust one another.”

We enjoy the smaller things in life – an evening in the sauna with friends, or a quiet walk in the forest.

Security and trust are the basis for several factors that, according to the World Happiness Report, make one country happier than another: generosity, having someone to count on, freedom to make life choices and freedom from corruption. 

Finland scores very highly on each of these. There are strong social safety nets such as welfare, universal healthcare and world-class and free education, low crime and a thing called talkoohenki – a community spirit where people muck in to help each other.

There’s one more very Finnish thing that aids happiness: humility. Ambassador Haapea is a good example of this. Rather than crowing about his country’s ninth happiness gong in a row, he modestly says: “Each year we are surprised to see we’re still on top of that list.”

Five ways to get happy in Finland

Take a sauna and let the steam (löyly) relax you

Plunge into a lake or the Baltic under the Midnight Sun

Take a husky-sled ride through a winter wonderland

Forage in forests for mushrooms and berries

Watch dazzling Northern Lights from a frozen lake

Find out more at Visit Finland.