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The 2020 World Happiness Report ranked Finland, for the third year running, as the world’s happiest country.
The "Nordic Model" has long been touted as the aspiration for social and public policy in Europe and North America, but what is it about Finland that makes the country so successful and seemingly such a great place to live?
Is it simply the level of government spending on health, education and welfare? Is it that Finland has one of the lowest rates of social inequality and childhood poverty, and highest levels of literacy and education?
Finland clearly has problems of its own – for example, a high level of gun ownership and high rates of suicide – which can make Finns sceptical of their ranking, but its consistently high performance across a range of well-being indicators does raise fascinating questions.
In the quest for the best of all possible societies, Danny Dorling and Annika Koljonen explore what we might learn from Finnish success.
— Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, Oxfam GB
Danny Dorling is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, an Academician of the Academy of the Learned Societies in the Social Sciences and a former Honorary President of the Society of Cartographers. His books include, most recently, Do We Need Economic Inequality? (2018) and Slowdown (2020).
Annika Koljonen graduated in Politics and International Relations from the University of Cambridge in 2019 and was an intern at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that year. She currently lives in Helsinki.
Part 1 Context1. The geography, geology, climate and weather2. History and politics3. The economy since 1945
Part 2 Social Policy4. Childhood5. Adulthood6. Old age and health
Part 3 The Future7. Austerity, populism, Europe and the immediate future8. Demography and environmental challenges9. Attempts to overcome success fatigue