ARE NORDIC COUNTRIES REALLY THE HAPPIEST IN THE WORLD?
Josefin Roth – Brand Manager of Raison d’Etres LivNordic – talks about whether Nordic countries are really the happiest in the world.
The Nordic region – are we really the happiest?
According to UN’s 2019 Happiness Report, Nordic countries dominate the top 10 happiest countries in the world. Our region is said to be one of the happiest, healthiest and most sustainable in the world.
If you ask us Scandinavians, is this really true? We’d say, maybe, maybe not – most people would probably not be so sure that we really are “that happy”. These reports often start dynamic discussions about what criteria are measured and the methods of analysis. I would not say that we would rank ourselves as this high, or even talk about happiness in this way. Yes, we have heard the stats before and sure, it makes us proud – but we probably wouldn’t state it ourselves, and certainly not brag about it. In fact, I think we might not always be aware of the high quality of life we live here in the north.
For us at LivNordic, it actually doesn’t really matter if we are ranked the happiest nation or not. Because from our point of view, the Nordics are not really striving to be the best, we are rather focusing on being really good. What does matter, is that this report tells us something about the Nordic lifestyle that we can learn and benefit from.
We believe that the Nordic sense of being, the closeness to life, the connectivity to nature – is too good not to be shared. We have a rare and beautiful quality of life, one that gives us a solid foundation and freedom to build our lives from. Being Swedish, I recently returned back to Sweden after being away for a few years – and I can sense it everywhere I go. Its subtle, simple and authentic. It comes natural to us, and there is certainly a beauty in the beingness of being effortless. We truly believe that quality is born in simplicity, and happiness in the joy of the small things.
