Actually, my title is misleading. It’s not that Germans are necessarily unhappy, it’s that they are significantly less happy that they were in 2020. That’s according to a UN study, which surveys the level of happiness among citizens of various countries.
Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Der Wochenblick:
According to a UN study: Germans and Austrians are becoming increasingly unhappy
In the mainstream media, it is repeatedly claimed like a mantra that we are doing better than ever, that everyone is so happy. And politicians from the old parties regularly strive to create a picture of the population that agrees on this — perhaps with the exception of a few constantly nagging critics of the system, who it is best not to listen to. Anyone who expresses criticism is quickly stigmatized as an enemy of the constitution or as a “Schwurbler”. [someone who speaks without any facts or knowledge of the subject he or she is talking about, i.e. the political elite] But can the alleged satisfaction be maintained in the long term? A study by the UN raises doubts.
By Achim Baumann
The United Nations (UN) has now presented the current “World Happiness Report” (WHR). It is about the satisfaction of the citizens of a country. The basis of the ranking, which was created for the tenth time by the “UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network”, is a sophisticated evaluation system that measures the “subjective self-perception of one’s own existence” as well as “positive and negative emotions”. In other words: how satisfied the citizen actually is.
Finland again in first place in the ranking
At the top are Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Switzerland, followed by the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel and New Zealand.
Please note: The statistics were created before the Russo-Ukrainian war and reflect the feeling of satisfaction for the year 2021. Possible threat scenarios played no role in the preparation of the statistics. Finland is the winner again. The Finns were already five times more satisfied than other citizens in the world, the ranking includes a total of 146 countries.
Germany and Austria slipped
While Germany’s neighbor Luxembourg ranks 6th, Austria and Germany only follow in 11th and 14th place. Now, 11th and 14th place may not look bad, after all there are around 130 places behind them. But Germany, for example, has slipped from 7th place to 14th place. This clearly shows that the citizens of the Federal Republic have become considerably less satisfied. And Austria slipped, albeit only marginally, from 10th to 11th place. But here, too, the trend is downwards.