For several consecutive years Finland and Sweden have repeatedly scored highly on the global happiness ranking. While long cold winters often get people depressed in other parts of the world, this appears to have little effect on the Scandinavians. So what is their secret? What makes them so happy? The answer is actually quite simple; in Sweden and Finland there is civic and social harmony. People trust each other, the government, and society.
In Estonia it may take some time to catch up with our Nordic neighbours' high level of happiness, but compared to Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia has the happiest people in the Baltics.
In the recent Estonian Social Survey, respondents were asked to assess how often they had felt happy during the previous four weeks. Half of the Estonian population (50.1 percent) admitted they are either always happy, or happy most of the time. Around a third (35.3 percent) reported feeling happy sometimes, while just over a tenth (11.3 percent) are rarely happy, and 3.3 percent are never happy. In Lithuania, 48.1 percent of people surveyed said they were always happy or happy most of the time, and that figure was even lower in Latvia, where 36.8 percent of respondents said they were happy all or most of the time. Overall, life satisfaction continues to grow in Estonia.