Don’t worry . . .

According to the 2018 World Happiness Report, Finland is the happiest country in the world.

Finland. Famous for:

Aurora Borealis
Midnight Sun
Sauna
Lakes
Wild nature
Ski resorts
Interior design
and, supposedly . . . Santa Claus (the real one)

Beyond that, I was intrigued to learn how the rankings of individual countries are calculated. Apparently, it works like this . . .

The rankings use data that come from the Gallup World Poll and are based on answers to a question called the Cantril ladder: you think of a ladder, with the best possible life for you being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0, and you rate your own current lives on that zero to 10 scale. There’s also a link, along the way, within the Gallup methodology, that takes other factors into account, ie levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom, and corruption – comparing your answers to results from a hypothetical country called Dystopia which records the world’s lowest national happiness scores

So, now we know. Happiness can be a quantitative measure. Who ever would have thought it?