Why Finland and Denmark are the happiest 【vol.3】

Reporter:

Meet Meilk Wiking, Happiness researcher and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark.

Meilk Wiking:
There is a lot of factors that impact happiness, everything from biology to income levels to the city they live in.

But I think the best predictor we see in the data of whether people are happy or not is whether they're satisfied or happy with their relationships.

So, do we have somebody we can rely on in times of need?

Do we have somebody we can share our hopes and worries with?

Reporter:

These six categories help account for the differences in life satisfaction around the world.

GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, social support, generosity, and absence of corruption.

Meilk Wiking:

On average, richer countries are happier.

On average, richer people are happier.

But, once we get to a certain level of income, an additional $100 a month is not going to impact how people feel about their lives.

So, with money, like with everything else, we see diminishing marginal return.

Oliver Enne:

And I don't know why I'm bringing up this quote, because it's extremely cormy, but there is a Kanye west song in whiche he says that, "Having money is not everything Not haveing it is."

And I do think that's true in the sense that when you don't have it, It's all you worry about.

And when you do have money, you can actually worry about other stuff.

Happiness also seems like this elusive thing.

We have two words for happiness in Danish.

So we have "LYKKE," which is the elusive thing.

The thing you experience once every blue moon.

And then we have to be "glad," like the word glad, which is different because it's more down to Earth and you can be glad despite the fact that it's not anything special, it's no special day.

Lykke seems like this elusive thing that you can't quite chase.

To be glad is more like our mindset.

So I feel more like I choose to be glad at times rather than sort of trying to chase happiness because that seems like it's never going to happen that way.