“Happiest country in the world” ranking is bullshit (and propaganda)
Finland has won for 9 year straight something called the World Happiness Report - and I call bullshit all over it.
How they get the rating?
The World Happiness Report tells us on its homepage:
Our global happiness ranking is based on a single question that asks people to evaluate the quality of their life on a 0–10 scale. Finland has topped the rankings since 2018.
Yes, this bullshit ranking that comes out every year, and every year is plastered in all news sources for a week, bullshit ranking that is the main reason for people thinking Scandinavian people are the happiest in the world1 and that they must be doing something right over there, something worth trying in insert_your_country_name_here, yes this bullshit is based on people self-scoring their happiness.
…dramatic pause…
What this thing really tracks
It doesn’t track happiness, it tracks likelihood to complain, that’s it. We know it’s that because no amount of fitting a narrative around those countries comes up with a coherent why, and we know is bullshit because this year Costa Rica is 4th and has literally nothing in common with the other top 10.
What drives me up the wall
Not only the ranking is bullshit, but there is a whole narrative attached to it that explains to us Neanderthals what makes people happy, and guess what? It’s government mandate ID checks to access the Internet, I mean age verification in social media, I mean how social media is bad for your happiness.
You might think I must be joking, but oh no, oh no no no:
In December 2025, the Australian government increased the age limit for ten social media platforms from 13 to 16.[3] Other countries, including Denmark, France, and Spain, are planning similar regulation.[4] We hope that the evidence in this volume will help policy-makers in their assessment of such policies.
Tin-foil time
- How is this laughable survey getting so much attention in the media every year?
- Why is a laughable survey dedicating all the spotlight to push government control over the free Internet?
- Who is funding this?
“How deep the rabbit hole do you want to go” kind of scenario here.
Till next time.
You have to meet some to know how preposterous this is↩