Danes are the happiest people in Europe, a survey suggests. But what is the secret of their contentedness?
Something is markedly unrotten in the state of Denmark. Asked to rate both their happiness and long-term life satisfaction, Danish people trounce their European cousins. Many in Denmark put this regularly-surveyed contentedness down to a dynamic economy and a pleasant work-life balance, with people leaving the office on time, jumping on effective public transport and heading off to pick up their delightful children from a shiny, well-run kindergarten.
But there are others out to savage the myth of the happy Dane, arguing that low expectations of life account for their unusually happy disposition.Kevin McGwin, from Maine in the US, works on the Copenhagen Post newspaper, and is well-used to surveys suggesting the Danish love of life. It could all be down to a pleasant quality of life, he suggests. “Denmark is very consumer-oriented and very family-oriented. People are sure to leave work at 4.30pm. They work their eight hours and go home. Pressure to work overtime doesn’t exist.”
Denmark has a 37-hour week. Parents get 52 weeks of maternity/paternity leave to be shared between them – 24 weeks is usually at full pay, with the rest often at as much as 90% pay. Much of it can be spread over the first nine years of the child’s life. Childcare is subsidised with no parent being asked to pay more than 25% of the cost.Danish ambassador to London Birger Riis-Jorgensen says he doesn’t find it surprising Danes rate themselves as happy. “In other parts of Europe globalisation is perceived as a threat. For Danes, 78% think globalisation is an opportunity. “We have high taxes but we have generous unemployment benefits, a lot of life-long learning. We feel secure and we feel that we have opportunities. “We have a lot of faith in government as an institution. The authorities are normally competent, uncorrupt and approachable.”
Danes fundamentally believe their state is well run, Mr Riis-Jorgensen says, but citizens are still capable of complaining when there are problems with public services. “If 5% of trains are running late it is a political problem.”
And the safe streets of Copenhagen can be a surprise to foreign visitors.
“When foreigners are finding out they can safely let their children bike to school in the suburbs of Copenhagen they get pretty amazed.” But a study by the University of Southern Denmark earlier this year found success in happiness surveys might be down to low expectations.Fears not realised
Researcher Kaare Christensen looked back over three decades of surveys that had created the legend of the “happy Dane”. “In countries such as Italy and Spain, people have much higher expectations for what the coming year will bring, but they’re not especially happy or satisfied with their existence.”
But Danes take a more realistic view of life, he suggested at the time.
“Year after year we’re just happy that things didn’t go as badly as we’d feared.” And even McGwin, who is married to a Dane, is sceptical that Danes’ happiness is all its cracked up to be. “The weather here is pretty lousy and half the year it’s dark. They are as depressed as Hamlet some days.”
Could this be? i am pretty happy with my life as it is, could be better could be worse, it think its what you make of it. :bounce_fl
hmm…Angel and !sinner69! have told us a lot about Denmark over the last few months, and I have to say I’m not totally convinced by this news report
I’d agree that Denmark is probably a good place to be if you are willing to conform to the social norms (mind you the same can be said about any nation, even “less free” places like Singapore!), but it hasn’t shown itself to be that good at accepting people living differently…
Yes, public services do seem to be good but there seems to be too much effort put into crushing things like the Ungdomshuset and Christiana (it seems from the reaction they provoked from authority its as if are seen as a threat to the nation like terrorists
I get the impression a lot of the positive social things that happened in Denmark are being lost due to the intense pressure of global competition (such as how Angel mentions that children also have lots more exams in school), plus they come across as a lot harder on preventing drug use and parties there …
I don’t really think Denmark’s culture is that different from what you get in Scotland or Eastern England TBH…. there is a lot of common heritage if you look at language, and the use of the North Sea as a resource…
The regular viking incursions of the tenth to twelvth centuries help this along quite seriously – there was a Danelaw in the UK during the early medieval period and a slave market trading out of Dublin….lots of scandinavians in these parts of the UK :groucho:. Officially some of the islands off Scotland’s coast were in Norwegian hands until the 1200s.
As a Dane I don’t think we are more happy than the rest of the world..
I think that we are more grateful about the things in life that are good.
I think it can be back from WW2..
We as kids have learned a lot about how our grandparents felt under the occupation of Germany..And we have been told from we were very small,how good things are now,and how difficult things were then..
It’s one of these things we never have been allowed to forget..:yakk:
But I’m not saying that things were easy then,I don’t want to sound as a person who think it doesn’t matter how our grandparents felt..
I grew up with my grandparents,and I know how hard things were then.. Have been told that a lot.. It have made me always think about other peoples happiness and forget about myself.. was like “you’re not worthy”.. I was raised that way,and it seems naturally for me to think about others before I think about myself..
I think that in Denmark complaining about things .. makes people look selfish and weak, we should be happy about what we have,and a lot of the older population are always ready to tell us how ungrateful we as young people are..
That’s one thing that’s different from the English people..
Nobody in Denmark goes hungry,there are almost always places for our kids to be, there are almost always shelters for our homeless,room in the hospitals,you can go to the dentist from one day to another,doctors etc etc ..
But the thing about no pressure to work late..is a lot of crap..I just don’t think we complain about it,because we know there always will be another person who will be willing to take our jobs,if we don’t obey orders :obey:
I think a big part of the problems with Ungdomshuset and Christiania was/are drugs..It’s not accepted in Denmark from the wider population..
And the government have to do something to please people..It’s always a good thing to say when there are elections .. It give the government votes..
But just because you’re from Denmark,doesn’t mean you’re happy..
Blahhhh.. I probably make no sense :you_crazy
Ah its good to read a Dnes point of vew on this Angel, you may be right with the Danes not moanng idea! us Brits are probably the best at moaning, nothing can ever be perfect as there is always something to moan about.
I would like to see how people come up with these stories, well i mean get the results. I would be curious to see the stats on the people they have asked to get these results.
:bounce_fl
It’s an analysis from Cambridge University
The report, which applies new techniques for understanding European well-being, also suggests that people in Scotland, Wales and most parts of England consider themselves less happy now than they were four years ago.
Researchers at the University’s Faculty of Economics, who are unveiling the first stage of their findings on the subject, say the slump in public contentment could be due to flagging trust in the Government and other institutions.
Their preliminary report provides a full assessment of the results of the European Social Survey into well-being, which began in 2002.
Every two years, approximately 20,000 people throughout the 180 regions are asked to rate both their overall happiness and longer-term sense of fulfilment (“life satisfaction”) out of 10. The scores are then cross-referred with the results of a more extensive survey, designed by a team of leading psychologists, which asks questions ranging from “How religious are you?”
to “How much do you personally trust the police?” The aim is to identify not just where in Europe people are happiest, but why, with a view to informing policy.
After two years of compilation and analysis, trends are now emerging for the 15 states who were EU members in 2004 (the so-called “EU 15”), enabling a region-by-region breakdown of people’s happiness.
In Scotland, Wales, the north of England and the south-west, the average score out of 10 for happiness was about 7.5 at the last count, compared with a result closer to 8 in 2002. The only regions to return a consistent 8/10 score were East Anglia, London and the East Midlands. The average score for life satisfaction remained steady at around 7.
The averages leave Britain ranking 9th for happiness in the table of 15 European countries, and 10th for life satisfaction. People in Denmark were the happiest and most satisfied, while the Italians and the Portuguese were deemed the most miserable.
The map of European well-being also puts paid to some long-standing national stereotypes. In particular, the idea that people are happiest along the sunny banks of the Mediterranean does not appear to be true. Italy, Portugal and Greece are consistently among the lowest-scoring countries in the survey, while the highest scores were registered in the chillier surrounds of Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, as well as among the table-topping Danes.
Women generally classed themselves as happier than men, while the old and young tended to be happier than people in their middle years.
The Cambridge team has now begun to analyse what makes people in some countries happier than others. One of the most consistent trends is that those with the highest levels of happiness also reported the highest levels of trust in their governments, the police and the justice system, as well as those around them. Happier people also tended to have plenty of friends and acquaintances, as well as at least one very close friend, or a partner.
The report also appears to confirm the old adage that money can’t buy you happiness. In countries where the population generally said that they trusted the government and other institutions, a high income made people happier still – but in those countries where such trust was lacking (such as Italy), even the very rich tended to be unhappy. The degree to which people had been educated had a similarly limited impact on their overall well-being. But the degree to which peoples’ jobs gave them a sense of self-respect did appear to influence their happiness levels.
“The survey shows that trust in society is very, very important. The countries that scored highest for happiness also reported the highest levels of trust in their governments, laws and each other. The UK shows falling trust in government, the police and other institutions and higher social distrust, which might explain why the level of happiness among British people has also fallen.”
Many of the happiest countries in the survey – the Scandinavian members, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – also come top of the World Bank Governance Indicators, which seek to assess the quality of a country’s government. Likewise those EU 15 countries that scored worst in terms of governance (Italy, Portugal and Greece) tended to come bottom in the happiness survey as well.
Unhappy people are unlikely to change their lives simply by hopping on the next plane to Copenhagen, however. People who were indigenous citizens of the country they lived in tended to be happier than those who were not, probably because these people usually know more of the people around them and have wider social networks.
“The message to policy-makers is that they should therefore promote social inclusion, because that brings the psychological integration that is essential to happiness,” Dr Corrado added. “One thing that is clear from the report is that it is not enough for governments to focus on improving wealth. Our well-being would be more likely to flourish in a mutually supportive and trusting society. The question is: Are governments addressing these issues?”
There we go with statistics….hmmmm…the good spirit in this country has dropped radicaly since late 90’s all thats good have been wiped out(pusher-street at christiania eradicated, from laid back coppers to zero-tolerance, cut backs in unemployment rights, social security also on a downhill etc) ….think this statistic happines comes from real estate prices gone up so a lots of people feel them selves content and secured(but as we all know, real estate prices goes up and down)together with very low unemployment, there are statistics wich have been done in dk that shows that people are the opesit; more stressed and unhappy to work as hard as they have to because lack of people to employ(long work hours) …..I was thinking of moving south, but thats not an option before “we” have turned the table, I can not just flee this country wich has brought me such a mass of happines…so the struggle for a better way of life continues and the fight against the right wing goverment shall be won! Not all is shite here….the good people is still here!
Thanks Angel and !sinner69! for the clarifications.
I do think that British people moan and complain a bit more these days but this is also due to social changes, we are slowly getting rid of the defined social classes that existed in Britain and are more willing to challenge authority and be individuals, and part of this involves openly challenging something you disagree with rather than just accepting it.
I think people should complain about the excesses of the Government and when public services do not deliver, but at the same time it does get a bit much. But powerful people have already often worked out ways of dealing with opposition, they can let you “have a say” but still do nothing.
It also creates a climate where people pick holes in otherwise positive things. For instance there was an excellent outdoor party this last weekend, but some people complained that “the music wasn’t that good” (it did change styles a lot but I thought thats how they always do parties in this part of the country, plus it didn’t matter to me when weather was really good and no cops caused any problems!)
I think a lot of it is that people always think that “the grass is greener on the other side”
From what both of you say It seems that it isn’t at all different from the English region now I live in (East Anglia), which for all its faults (such as some cops being very harsh about raves) does have good public services and a community spirit (it also scored higher than other regions).
This is also something I suspected happened in Denmark. Even long before I was chatting to Angel and !sinner69! here I worked for a company which made electronic equipment that Danmarks Radio would often use; and therefore would often read the news on DR’s website out of curiosity.
I don’t actually think the crushing of ungdomshuset and the attempts to “normalise” Christiana are merely about anti-drugs enforcement – although this is one aspect of the crackdown
I would suspect that there is a lot of drugs use (particularly opiates) around many other areas of Denmark particularly the areas near the sea as boats could get all sorts of stuff in at odd hours (not all the cargo would be fish!)
What they do not like is that people are openly championing these hedonistic and noisy lifestyles that do not involve consumerism. I suspect that just like in Britain, people can take heroin until they die and unless they rob other people no one cares provided they don’t make excessive noise or loud music whilst doing it….
It definitely comes across as a backlash from the “middle europe” socially conservative me
mbers of the population who want increased social conformity rather than the experimental alternative communities of previous years, they refuse to accept things done outside the market..
For shure ungdomshuset has nothing to do with crackdown on drugs, christiania…THC yes….drugs no….so we are left with as you said anti-consumer thing….and the right to self govern your alternatives to the established soceity….but I have lived this long now and watched the pendule swaying from one end to the other; from left wing politics late 70s and early 80s to right wing in the reagan/tatcher era, wich had influnce on the whole western hemisphere then back again to left wing, so I am not that worried like would have been earlier in my life….the pendule will come back on our side, hopfully in not such a long time….
There is one thing though wich gives me a great deal of concern and that is the loss of civil liberties during this liefilled war against terror, I am not sure we get them back without a hassle but we will have to try sooner than later…..when injustice becomes right…..
We are the best and moaning and not doing something about the issues we are moaning at :laugh_at:
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