For the fifth year in a row, Finns have been officially ranked as the happiest people in the world.
For urban dwellers, the capital’s abundance of nature, space and quiet is surely a boost – from the parks and allotments that add to its 40 per cent green space, to the near-unrivalled air and water quality and unerring presence of the sea. For Helsinki is, in fact, a peninsula – embraced on three sides by a mosaic of 300 islands, 130km of coastline and 25 public beaches (with winter swimming highly encouraged) – where every resident lives within 10km of the water.
