tldr: low expectations
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Mildly Interesting
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I've heard they allow each other personal space in public.
So true. There are sociological studies about at which distance to each other people in different countries start feeling uncomfortable. In Finland it's very high, several meters depending on the situation. Pictures like these (people waiting for the bus in a snow flurry) are common:
Or this cartoon from "Finnish Nightmares":
I think I found my people 😍
This and Sauna have me thinking I should have learned Finnish instead of Norwegian.
First of all, these often cited surveys ask for being content, or satisfied, not "happiness" itself, a term most Finns would feel overwhelmed by.
And this article, like so many others, is about summer and Helsinki. Not winter and somewhere less cultural.
And, believe it or not, national surveys have revealed that we are less happy now than a few years ago, thanks to our conservative-neoliberalistic-fascistoid government.
That said, it still is a great place to live, winter has its charms too, now that the days are getting longer again and there is proper snow, and if I ever had to live in a big city again, Helsinki would be a good choice.
Unified School system where rich and poor use same facilities (so the wealthy upgrade them). Better housing programs than most, as they try to end homelessness (because people die out in the cold). A sense of unity, partially due to Russia being pn their footsteps.
*doorstep