Is it true that Finland is the first country in the world in terms of both happiness and suicide rates?

There is popular information on the Internet that Finland leads the ranking of the happiest countries, but at the same time tops the list of countries with the highest mortality rate due to suicide. We decided to check if this is true.

Paradoxical data that residents of the happiest country commit suicide more often than others are being discussed by social network users (X, Facebook*, Threads*, "VKontakte") And blogging platforms. You can find such information at portals about Finland. In some articles approvedthat suicide is the leading cause of death among Finnish youth. The topic of Finnish leadership is a popular topic in two seemingly contradictory ratings and on Telegram. Many popular channels wrote about this, for example “Alcoholic historian"(136,000 views at the time of writing the analysis), "Archivist" (92,000) and "Anti-gloss"(77,000). Some posts provide infographics with statistics on the number of suicides per 100,000 inhabitants - Finland is supposedly in the lead with 28.4. 

The news trigger for another surge of interest in Finland and the happiness of its inhabitants was the publication of the annual rating happiest countries in the world according to The World Happiness Report. This report is dedicated to International Day of Happiness, which is celebrated on March 20. Report issues The University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Center together with Gallup, the UN Sustainable Development Network and The World Happiness Report's editorial board, which includes researchers from leading European and American universities. Happiness Score is being formed based on a survey that annually involves about 100,000 people from 140 countries. The respondent is asked to answer just one question: he must imagine that he is standing on a ladder, the top step of which represents his best possible life, and the bottom represents his worst possible life, and then say which rung he thinks he is on. Although the report also contains data on GDP per capita, average life expectancy, level of corruption, etc., only the responses of respondents are taken into account when compiling the happiness rating. Finland ranks first in the ranking for the eighth time since 2017.

As for statistics on suicide rates, they do not seem to be updated as often as the ranking of happiest countries. For example, the latest data WHO dates back to 2019. At that time, this rate in Finland was one of the highest in the European region - 13.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. However, this country was inferior to Russia (21.6), Lithuania (20.2), Ukraine (17.7), Belarus (16.5), Montenegro (16.2) and some other European countries. If we talk about the world as a whole, it is unlikely that Finland would even be among the top ten leaders, given that in some African countries the number of suicides approached the mark of 90 per 100,000 inhabitants, such as in Lesotho. 

The International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has slightly more recent data: The latest ranking, which includes information about Finland, was compiled in 2021. At that time, this country ranked fourth among OECD countries, behind Lithuania, Hungary and Estonia. At the same time, the organization included only 38 countries - all with a high standard of living and income of citizens. Therefore, most likely, Finland would rank much lower if statistics for all other countries of the world were included in this list. 

The statistical service of the European Union has slightly different data. In the same 2021, by data According to Eurostat, the highest rates of death due to intentional self-harm were in Germany, while Finland was only in 14th place. And again, these are data only for the European Union; they do not take into account the most disadvantaged regions of the world.

However, some posts provide an infographic showing that Finland tops the rankings for the number of suicides per 100,000 inhabitants with a rate of 28.4. The states in the list are conditionally divided into the categories “Western Countries” (mainly Europe and North America) and “Countries of Traditional Society” (Tajikistan, Brazil, Thailand, etc.). In the first group, the suicide rate is significantly higher. The infographic does not indicate where the data came from or what year it was obtained. Using a reverse image search "Verified" I was able to find the original source of this infographic. Apparently, it was first published in article “Civilization-variable foundations for the formation of a social state” by Russian historian and political scientist, professor at Moscow State University Vardan Baghdasaryan, published in 2009. However, in the scientist’s infographics there is one more line that the authors of the viral posts omitted: Russia, with an indicator of 43.1, is far ahead of Finland.

However, data WHO somewhat contradict Baghdasaryan’s statistics: in 2009, the suicide rate in Finland was lower - 20.4. The Finns did not reach the specified level of 28.4 in several previous years before the publication of the scientific article.

The high suicide rate has indeed been a national problem in Finland: in the 1990s, the rate reached marks of 30 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (although even then the country was not in first place in the world). Since then, the Finnish government has made significant efforts efforts to reduce the number of suicides: research was carried out on the main causes of suicide, access to firearms and poisons was limited, and the media began to report cases of such deaths in more neutral terms, avoiding romanticization. In addition, during these same years, the suicide rate across Europe as a whole decreased, perhaps due to the emergence of a new generation of antidepressants or the spread of mobile communications, which allows people to have more contact with family and friends without being left alone. By 2000, the figure for Finland decreased to 24.3 per 100,000 inhabitants and since then has gradually decreased (in some years, however, there was an increase relative to the previous period, but it never reached even the 2000 figure).

Thus, Finland indeed topped the ranking of the happiest countries in the world for the eighth time, but in terms of the number of suicides it is far from the leaders. According to the statistics available at the time of writing, this country is not a leader even among European countries, not to mention the whole world. The infographic that appears in some viral posts is taken from a 2009 scientific article and not only does not reflect the current state of affairs, but was also at odds with official WHO statistics 16 years ago.

*Russian authorities consider the company Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook, Threads and Instagram, to be an extremist organization and its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: ChatGPT

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. BBC. Finland named as happiest country for eighth year
2. The Conversation. Finland managed to halve its suicide rate – here’s how it happened
3. Is it true that on Black Thursday, failed American investors jumped from skyscrapers en masse?
4. Is it true that young liberals are more likely than other people to suffer from mental disorders?