(March 20): Finland’s unbroken streak as the world’s happiest country continued for an eighth year while the US fell to 24th place, its lowest-ever level in the global ranking.

Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and the Netherlands rounded out the top five in the rankings, which are based solely on the answers people give when asked to rate the quality of their own lives, according to researchers.

Finns’ happiness is perhaps surprising given the country’s proximity to Russia, its main adversary, which is in its fourth year of waging full-scale war in Ukraine. As tensions with Russia have increased, Finland, along with other European countries, has seen an increasing frequency of incidents, such as cyberattacks against banks and GPS jamming affecting aircraft. Around the Baltic Sea, critical undersea infrastructure has been damaged in acts of suspected sabotage, though no link to Russia has been established.

The study was published on Thursday by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, and compiled in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

New findings from the report include that “belief in the kindness of others is much more closely tied to happiness than previously thought”, the researchers said, citing the importance of social trust.

“Believing that others are willing to return your lost wallet is also shown to be a strong predictor of population happiness: Nordic nations once again top the ranking of the world’s happiest countries, but they also rank among the top places for expected and actual return of lost wallets,” according to the report.

The US, which dropped below the top 20 for the first time last year, fell an additional notch. Its best ranking in the past decade was 13, achieved in 2016. The UK hit its lowest level this year since 2017.

Country rankings are based on a three-year average of a population’s self-assessment of its quality of life. Variations have been explained by factors such as gross domestic product per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, a sense of freedom, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

Over the longer term, the biggest shifts have not been seen between countries, according to researchers, but rather within individual countries.

“Happiness inequality within countries has increased by about one-quarter over the past two decades, while happiness inequality between countries has remained roughly constant,” they said.

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