Finland remains the country with the happiest population on earth. That's according to the annual World Happiness Report, released today to mark International Happiness Day.

Despite the sharp deterioration in the security situation in Europe as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and Finland's ongoing NATO accession, the Nordic EU country took the top spot in the ranking for the sixth year in a row. It is followed by Denmark, Iceland, Israel and the Netherlands. This time Germany comes in 16th - two places worse than last year.

Life appraisals have remained remarkably stable in most of the world's populations despite multiple overlapping crises, the scientists involved wrote in the report. In the years 2020 to 2022, which were shaped by the corona pandemic, the global average of life satisfaction was just as high as in the three years before the pandemic.