What factors contribute to the overall happiness and integrity of a country? It's not only the access to affordable food and water that makes people so happy. Social, political, and economic histories and outlooks interact to generate an overall climate of civil tension or ease, always shifting, spiking, and sloping.

The answer isn't simple. "Happiness" depends on the congruence of values within each country. Many people in strictly religious countries might report high happiness because they are following their values, but we would see their practices as miserable, stifling, personal freedoms because here in the U.S., we value agency over community.

Six factors can be agreed upon that contribute to relative happiness for a country: "G.D.P. per capita, social support, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and corruption levels."

For example, let's use the United States of America. We are a grumpy bunch. According to surveys conducted by TIME magazine over the last 10 years, happiness in the US is relatively low compared to other countries, and lower than it has been in a long time: "the highest happiness index was 35% in 2008 and 2009."

Not everyone has the same contentment, and it is an important sign to notice when the happiness of one group is incongruent with its neighbor. Countries with similar rates of happiness over ethnic, social, and identity groups tend to be more holistic in their social structure. In The US, we fair decently on these scales as a country who tries fairly decently.

"The people who reported being the happiest were men and women in high-income households and those with a high school diploma or less. Republicans and Democrats experienced similar increases in happiness levels (but Republicans tend to report higher happiness levels overall, Gerzema says)." Overall, men reported a greater increase in happiness levels compared to women, though they were more likely to say they were frustrated at work...

So... what are we doing wrong? For one, a lot. What can we do to change things for the better? Answer: a lot. Where do we look for examples of high functioning societies that statistically support their methods successful in happiness financially, socially, and politically?

Finland.

Imagine a land where the citizens trust their police force. Imagine a land where prisons are rehabilitative, rather than for profit. Imagine a land where higher education is affordable and housing is feasible.

This land is Finland.

The New York Times reports: “World Happiness Report 2018... Finland is the happiest country in the world, it found, followed by Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Australia... Burundi and Central African Republic, both consumed by political violence, are the least happy countries."

Psychology Today backs up the idea that national happiness comes from equality and compromise. National coherence and support on issues such as mental health, healthcare, national security, and public broadcasting attitudes influence contentment more than we in America have experienced. Decriminalization of victimless crime as well as accepting outlooks toward those citizens deemed "criminal" supports a sanctuary climate. Kindness and general choice of language norms also influence happiness greatly.

“This association between societal equality and wellbeing is perhaps exemplified most clearly in the example of the Nordic countries. For, as we saw above, these invariably top the happiness tables that have proliferated recently. Ok, these countries are relatively affluent and stable, which certainly helps. However, comparatively wealthy places like the UK and USA do not share the same high levels of overall life satisfaction, as per the Easterlin paradox.

As such, many theorists attribute these trends to the Nordic nations' low levels of inequality, as reflected in and driven by egalitarian social policies. To give one example, the average CEO's salary in the USA is 354 times higher than those of the company's workers, whereas in Denmark it is just 48 times higher. As a result, Nordic people generally have high levels of social capital, which positively influences their wellbeing."

So... how much do airline tickets from U.S. to Finland cost again?

All jokes aside, countries plagued with civil unrest can learn a lot from the social systems of Finland. What works, works.