13 July 2025
This spring, for the eighth 12 months in a row, Finland was rated the happiest nation on the planet by the World Happiness Report. Sadly the U.S. misplaced floor and fell to #23, our lowest ever place on the happiness scale because the report started in 2012.
At present my husband and I are flying to Finland with a one evening stopover within the third happiest nation, Iceland. That is our third go to to Finnish mates whom we’ve recognized since Erkki was a overseas trade scholar at our highschool. I’m wanting ahead to a number of happiness.
The map under exhibits our areas: Pittsburgh (P), Iceland (orange) and Finland (pink). On Icelandair we solely have to alter planes as soon as, in Reykjavik.
Whereas in Helsinki we are going to keep throughout the road from Töölönlahti bay.
Even from afar we will see Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral, one of the vital well-known buildings in Finland. The steps to its plaza appear to be a wall on this photograph.
After a few days within the metropolis we are going to go to the countryside at Erkki and Helena’s summer season cottage at Lake Rikkavesi and their son’s cottage on a peninsula close to the Baltic Sea. Lake Rikkavesi is pictured on the prime of this text, the visitor cottage under. In 2017 it glowed at 3:30am, simply after dawn on 2 July.
Summer time cottage life is likely one of the issues that makes Finland such a contented place.
The Nordic life-style is carefully linked to nature and the extremely anticipated however quick lived summer season season. The preferred and ultimate solution to spend the summer season months in Finland is in a lakeside cottage surrounded by nature. This custom is grounded in conventional tradition and life-style and varieties an vital a part of the Finnish nationwide panorama. Many Finns take into account the cottage to steadiness out metropolis life.
There are 5 million individuals in Finland and 500,000 rural cottages, referred to as a mökki. About 50% of the Finnish inhabitants visits a cottage regularly.
A lot of the cottages are modest in measurement as proven in these Finnish summer season cottage information from Mökkibarometri 2025:
- The common cottage is 91 kilometers (56 miles) from dwelling and 70 sq. meters in measurement. (753 sq ft, in regards to the measurement of a one bed room condo.)
- 75% of cottages are related to the electrical energy grid.
- Photo voltaic panels are in use at 19% of cottages and warmth pumps at 34%.
- Fastened broadband is put in in 12%. (Cell protection is so good in Finland that I by no means wanted WiFi on the cottage.)
- 55% of homeowners convey their consuming water to their cottage.
- Most cottages are owned by older individuals. 55% of homeowners are retired.
- Shared possession has elevated. That is the case, for instance, with cottages owned by heirs.
Although it feels like loads of cottages, the lakes appear distant. Buildings don’t crowd the perimeters of lakes as they do within the U.S. and the lights of different cottages don’t shine throughout the water at evening.
On walks within the space with my husband Rick, Erkki, and his spouse Helena in 2017 we noticed a number of timber …
… and cows at this dairy farm, however we didn’t encounter different individuals.
I’ve marked this map of Finland with blue “X”s on the 4 locations we are going to go to.
We’ll calm down, take pleasure in time with mates, and be completely satisfied within the land of the midnight solar.
There shall be birds, too. Extra on that later.
