Rated by whom?
The recent report that crowned Finland was UN sponsored and conducted by Gallup. The #1 measure used to evaluate that was "social support". Here's an except from the article: Finland "ranked very high on the measures of mutual trust that have helped to protect lives and livelihoods during the pandemic", the authors said.
That doesn't sound like any criteria I'd use to judge happiness.
Finns are generally a pretty morose people who don't smile a lot. They don't have a lot of social mobility due to the heavy taxation. "Existing adequately" would be the best way to describe them, you'll have what you need to live a comfortable life in Finland but you're never really going to break out and become a high achiever.
Finland also has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe, hardly what you'd find from the "Happiest nation on Earth".
That "report" is just another puff piece designed to advance the idea that utopia can be found by creating a giant welfare state.
Agree; this is some cockamamie UN report. I like the Finns, have traveled there numerous times, good people, fought like tigers against the Bolshevik invaders. Because they fought, Stalin respected them and gave them a good deal at the end of the war. But they also had the world’s highest suicide rate, and they must drink more alcohol per capita than any country on earth, and the weather is often cruddy.
A friend of mine married a girl from Finland. I hardly ever saw her smile and she never joked.