Start being happy... just like the Finnish

As the World Happiness Report shows the UK is getting gloomier, how we need to tap into the 'sisu' way of thinking for extra resilience

- BY DR RAJ PERSAUD

It seems we are sinking into a pit of doom, if the World Happiness Report is anything to go by. In 2025 the UK ranked 23rd out of 147 countries in terms of our happiness, down from 20th.

So how can we turn this around and start to scale the heights of national wellbeing again?

Finland is the happiest country in the world - for the eighth year running - and, intriguingly, the next four are all its neighbours: Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

These are not the tropics, so what's the secret to their sunny dispositions?

The report reveals money doesn't buy happiness. Finland, which has 5.5 million people and 2.5 million saunas - comes only 21st in the 149-country ranking of wealthy countries. As a nation we are richer than Finland, coming in sixth place, but poorer in perkiness.