HELSINKI (Reuters)
Harsh economic headwinds are sending a chill through the world's happiest country.
Finland is grappling with economic stagnation, rising joblessness and strained public finances, but still managed to secure the title of world's happiest country for the eighth year in a row in this year's annual World Happiness Report.
Its success, experts say, is due in no small part to a generous welfare state - but that is now being trimmed back as ministers confront the surging social costs of an aging population.
NOKIA COLLAPSE
Finland's export-dependent economy has struggled since the phone business of Nokia, once Europe's most valuable company, collapsed in 2014 after it fumbled the switch to touch-screen smartphones.
The Bank of Finland is forecasting economic growth of 0.3% this year, down from 0.4% in 2024. Unemployment is among the worst in the European Union, and rose to its highest in at least 15 years at 10.3% in October, data from Statistics Finland showed on Tuesday.
The rate was more than twice as high - at 22.4% - among 15 to 24-year-olds.
Poor public finances have already prompted the government to start pruning some parts of the welfare state, including unemployment and housing benefits and some medical facilities.
FINNS' HAPPINESS HOLDS FIRM
But there is more to happiness than economics.
The life evaluations that people report in the happiness survey are determined more by factors like resilience and the ability to "deal collaboratively and constructively in bad times" than by national economic conditions, said the report's founding editor, emeritus professor John Helliwell.
"Of course, Finland is very high in resilience," he said.
Survey data for next year collected by analytics company Gallup and seen by Reuters shows no significant fluctuations in Finns' reported happiness.
The survey also takes into account key indicators such as GDP per capita, social support and healthy life expectancy.