5 days ago
Forget saunas, I found out the real reason why Finland is the world's happiest country
We all know about the role of saunas, nature and near-incorruptible politicians in Finland's long-running status as the world's happiest country. As a frequent visitor, however, I've long held the notion that strong women are the real reason why Finland has held the title for eight years in a row.
In a bid to confirm my theory, earlier this month – with crayfish grilling on countless barbecues and akvavit flowing – I met up with some of the country's womenfolk.
In a Helsinki side street bathed in razor-sharp midsummer sunlight, I had lunch with Jennifer de Paola, who told me that science seems to correlate my home-grown hypothesis.
'Some of the world's happiest countries, such as Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway, are also the most gender-equal,' she told me as we ploughed through roasted sweet potatoes topped with toasted hazelnuts at Yes! Yes! Yes! – a restaurant whose enthusiastic name seemed fitting for a meeting with a University of Helsinki happiness researcher.
The index, which is evaluated via a Gallup World Poll, asks people in more than 150 countries to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 10 via questions addressing everything from freedom to make life choices to perception of corruption.
'Studies from the University of Eastern Finland show Finnish women experience greater life satisfaction and a stronger sense of meaningfulness than men – and they're not afraid to say so, which must affect the country's ratings, too,' Paola told me.
Tough times
'Because of our difficult history, Finnish women are tough, and we know how to make the best of our lives,' opined sisters Sofia and Ella, who I met at Kahvila Rakastan, a café on the outskirts of Helsinki.
They craft Karelian pastries (karjalanpiirakat) using the recipes of their grandmother, who lived through the Soviet invasion in 1939.
The quirky little vintage-style kahvila sits in the flower-strewn courtyard of Hakasalmi, an elegant villa that belonged to another of the country's powerful women: Aurora Karamzin.
'She was a 19th-century socialite and knew all of our emperors, but when she inherited a huge fortune she used it to help other women,' Ella told me. 'She was committed all her life to women's education and social reform.'
Leaving Helsinki's monumental railway station the following day I travelled – via pastures and pine forests with impossibly quaint log cabins – to Tampere, a lovely, lively city with lakeside saunas and riverside events which could be a strong contender for the title of 'happiness capital'.
Former Prime Minister Sanna Marin was raised in this southern Finnish city by her mother, and her mother's female partner.
I asked Minna Merikoski, Tampere's International Affairs Specialist, if it was a coincidence that Finland topped the World Happiness Report for the first time in 2018, just before Marin and her female-majority cabinet came to power.
Merikoski, who oversees the city's innovative International Gender Equality Prize, didn't think so. 'Their policies focused on equality, work-life balance, and social welfare, and bolstered well-being even during the Covid crisis,' she told me.
At Ravintola Tampella, a restaurant surrounded by the textile mills which earned Tampere its 19th-century nickname, the Manchester of the North, I met up with Miia Huitti, founder of The Finnish Happiness Institute.
As we enjoyed one of those sun-soaked midsummer evenings where you can't tell if it's 5pm or 5am, Huitti told me that her own findings showed that women leaders feel that more is expected of them than men.
'But in 1906 Finland was Europe's first country (and one of the first in the world) to give women the vote, and we have plenty of resilient female role models, so that helps,' she added.
Naked logic
The following day, Heli Kurjanen, inventor of the Lunette menstrual cup and co-founder of intimate skin care company Augusta Nordic invited me to lunch at Ravintola Gösta in the lake-strewn countryside near Mänttä. She told me how she started Lunette with an entrepreneur loan when she was a 25-year-old stay-at-home mother without any formal business training.
'It's easier to address personal issues here in Finland because our progressive school system means people are less repressed,' she said. 'Also, with our saunas women are comfortable with their bodies – we undress in front of each other every week and it's totally natural. I think it's part of what makes us happy as a nation.'
Päivi Viherkoski, developer of the Routes of Nordic Women, guided tours that allow foreign visitors to meet local women, agreed: 'We have a different way of dealing with many issues. For a start, I think we're happier because we generally don't bother with makeup and we dress in a casual, practical way, so we can go out foraging in the forest whenever we want to.'
Tampere is also home to the world's only Moomin Museum, dedicated to the work of comic strip creator Tove Jansson, who was renowned for her independent stance on many issues.
'She was gay at a time when it was illegal and she denounced Stalin and the Nazis in many of her cartoons, but she also loved nature – so she was a typical Finn,' biologist Anna Nyman, owner of Foraging in Finland, told me later as we fossicked in the hedgerows of a Helsinki park.
Nyman agreed with my theory. 'We do have so many strong women and it does make a difference,' she said as we picked nettles. 'Take jokamiehenoikeudet – the right to forage.
'It was won for us in the early 20th century by a widowed mother-of-three, Ilma Kendgren. And foraging is one of the major reasons Finns are so content.'
How to do it
Flights from Gatwick to Helsinki with Scandinavian Airlines cost from £113.
Solo by Sokos Torni in Tampere has rooms from £147 per night, including breakfast. Solo by Sokos Helsinki has rooms from £124 per night, including breakfast.
