00:00Well, in this year's World Happiness Report, we have Finland again at the very top and
00:16the average life satisfaction in Finland is around 7.75 as people self-report the way
00:21their lives are going.
00:23That's the very top, so the other Nordic countries follow closely behind Finland with Denmark
00:28and Sweden and Iceland.
00:30At the very bottom of the World Happiness Report, we have Afghanistan falling even lower
00:35with an average life satisfaction in the country with now 1.3 out of 10 in the way that people
00:42self-rate the way their lives are going.
00:52They have lots of resources, GDP, and especially they share it very equally, so it's a rising
00:58tide lifting all boats approach with them.
01:01They also redistribute this level of income through the welfare state, which takes and
01:05helps out people who otherwise fall off the ship, and that gives them a safety net which
01:11provides psychological safety as well, which is obviously very important to the way people
01:15feel.
01:16And then they exhibit healthy lifestyles, healthy behaviors resulting in healthy life
01:23expectancy and a healthcare system which is mostly universal and free.
01:30And then, importantly, social support.
01:33So they trust each other, both others in the community around them, but also the institutions.
01:40And that turns out to be really, really important and a bit of a differentiator from other rich
01:44countries with long life expectancies.
01:47It's a good thing to put a spotlight on places like Costa Rica and Mexico because they are
01:52achieving high levels of life satisfaction in their population with a different set of
01:58recipe, with a different set of ingredients.
02:01So they do not necessarily have the high income, GDP per capita, and the redistribution through
02:07the welfare state.
02:08What they do have, and this is also something we focus in on this year, is they have a very
02:13strong family set, a set of family ties, so their immediate community is very strong.
02:19The larger political turbulence, shall we say, these days does very much play a role.
02:25And we pick this up in the negative emotions around anxiety, worry, stress.
02:31For example, around the world, the degree that people worry has increased extraordinarily.
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