Are Indonesians the world's most flourishing people?

A new study finds Third Worlders back home in their native lands tend to be happier than the populations of immigration-destination countries like the US and UK.

From the New York Times opinion page:

The Happiest Country in the World Isn’t What You Think

April 30, 2025

By Byron Johnson, Tyler J. VanderWeele, and Brendan Case

Dr. Johnson and Dr. VanderWeele are social scientists who are directing a five-year research project about global human well-being on which Dr. Case is collaborating.

According to the 2025 World Happiness Report, which was released last month, the happiest country in the world is Finland, trailed closely by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden.

Here’s the map from the latest World Happiness Report, with darker being better:

Here’s the top 20:

Here’s the bottom 20:

After all, at least some people seemed pretty unhappy about living in Afghanistan:

Still, are Finns really the happiest people on Earth? They seem kind of serious, even glum, at least when sober. The website Finnish Nightmares documents the difficulties of being a Finnish-class introvert:

Paywall here: