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What makes the Danes so happy?

In the year 2017, Denmark reached the first place in the worldwide Social Progress Index and the second in the UN World Happiness Report. What are the Danes doing right? Option has investigated.

Happy

"Denmark and Norway are the countries with the greatest trust in other people."
Christian Bjørnskov, University of Aarhus

Can a country satisfy the essential needs of its citizens? Does it provide the conditions for individuals and communities to improve and maintain their well-being? And do all citizens have the chance to fully exploit their potential? These are the questions that the Social Progress Index (SPI) seeks to answer every year for as many states around the world as possible with a complex meta-study. For Denmark you can answer all these questions in the following way: Yes! Yes! Yes!

Denmark has therefore reached 2017 the top spot of the SPI. Actually, the result is not surprising, write the authors of the "Social Progress Index" in their report. Denmark has long been admired for its successful social system and its high quality of life. At the beginning of 2017, even before the SPI was published, the "typical Danish" lifestyle was even proclaimed by many German-speaking media as the latest social trend: "Hygge" (pronounced hugge) calls itself that and could be translated as "Gemütlichkeit". You sit at home or in the nature with family and friends together, eat and drink well, talk and is just happy. In the summer, even a magazine of the same name came onto the market in Germany, where you can see many bright people.

"An acquaintance once said that we Danes are so happy because we have such low expectations," says Dane Klaus Pedersen with amusement. Klaus is 42 years old, lives in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark, and operates a film company for ten years. "I'm pretty happy with my life," he says, "The only thing that bothers me in Denmark is the high taxes and the weather." You can not change the weather, but there are candles, blankets and " Hygge ", see above. And the taxes?

"In Denmark and Norway, 70 percent of respondents say that most people can be trusted, with only 30 percent in the rest of the world."

Denmark is considered a high tax burden country, but in the OECD comparison it is only slightly above the average of 36 percent. At the top of the OECD is Belgium with a tax burden of 54 percent, Austria has 47,1 percent, Denmark 36,7 percent. In most countries this percentage consists of income tax and social security contributions such as health insurance, unemployment insurance, accident insurance, etc., while in Denmark only income tax is paid and the employer a small share of social security contributions. Extensive social benefits are thus financed by the state from income tax, which gives citizens the impression that these benefits are free.
"We are very privileged," says 38 year project manager Nicoline Skraep Larsen, who has two children aged four and six. In Denmark, school and study are free, for the study you even get a financial support. Most students would still have to work on the side, especially if they live in expensive Copenhagen, but the most important things are taken care of. "So everyone gets the chance to study, no matter how much money your parents have," says Nicoline. Therefore, the Danes are well trained, which also means a higher income. In Denmark, it goes without saying that women and men work equally. A woman may stay at home for a year after the birth of a child, for the time after that there will be enough childcare places that do not cost much.
Children and family are very important in Denmark. "It's always accepted to leave the office earlier because you have to pick up your children," observes Sebastian Campion, who works as a designer in an international company in Copenhagen and has no children himself. Officially, the weekly working hours in Denmark are 37 hours, but many would open the laptop in the evening when the children are in bed. Nicoline does not think that's bad. She's probably working 42 hours a week, but she would not think of working overtime, because she appreciated the easy-going flexibility.

The SPI also highlights the availability of affordable housing in Denmark. Those who do not earn enough, with a certain waiting time has the opportunity to rent a social housing, which costs about half as much as on the open market. Even if you get sick, lose your job, are incapacitated or want to retire - for almost all difficult life situations of the Danes there is the social network. Citizens' rights are also kept high, although Denmark has not been spared in recent years by a shift in the right to the European Union and isolation from refugees and immigrants. For some, social benefits are already too much and they would complain that their taxes would require them to receive others who, for whatever reason, do not work, observes Klaus Pedersen.

Happy through trust & humility

To say that you are more or better than someone else is taboo in Denmark. The Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose has described the 1933 in a novel that plays in the fictional village of Jante. Since then, this taboo is referred to as "Janteloven", as the "Law of Jante".

The Jante Code of Conduct - and happy?

The law of Jante (Danish / norw .: Janteloven, Swedish: Jantelagen) is a standing term that goes back to Aksel Sandemose's (1899-1965) novel "A Refugee Crossing His Track" (En flyktning krysser sitt spor, 1933) , In it, Sandemose describes the small-minded milieu of a Danish town called Jante and the pressure of adjustment, which family and social environment on the maturing boy Aspen Arnakke exercise.
The law of Jante has been understood as a code of conduct of social rules of the Scandinavian cultural sphere. The code presumably owes its ambiguity to the public in general because of its ambivalence: it is viewed positively by some as a limitation of egoistic striving for success; others see the law of Jante as the suppression of individuality and personal development.
In an anthropological perspective, Janteloven could point to a possible typical Scandinavian self-discipline in social coexistence: the humility shown on the day avoids envy and ensures the success of the collective.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janteloven

But all that does not explain why the Danes are not only considered the most socially progressive, but also the Norwegians, the happiest people in the world. An answer to this is provided by Christian Bjørnskov, researcher at the University of Aarhus: "Denmark and Norway are the countries in which the greatest trust in other people prevails." In both countries, 70 percent of respondents said that most people In the rest of the world, there are only 30 percent. Trust is something one learns from birth, a cultural tradition, but in Denmark it is well founded, says Christian Bjørnskov. Laws are clearly formulated and obeyed, the administration works well and transparently, corruption is rare. It is assumed that everyone is acting correctly. Klaus Pedersen confirms this: "I only do business by handshake."
Klaus has lived in Switzerland for a few years, where taxes are much lower and social benefits are lower. The Happiness Report puts Switzerland in fourth place and fifth in the SPI 2017. The paths to happiness are obviously very different.

Social Progress Index - happy?

The Social Progress Index (SPI) has been calculated since 2014 by a research group led by economics professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School for all countries of the world for which sufficient data is available; in the year 2017, the 128 countries were. It is based on a wealth of studies by international organizations and institutions on life expectancy, health, medical care, water supply and sanitation, housing, security, education, information and communication, environment, human rights, freedom, tolerance and inclusion. The idea is to have a counterpart to gross domestic product (GDP), which measures only the economic success of a country, but not social progress. The index is published by the nonprofit organization Social Progress Imperative, based on the work of Amartya Sen, Douglass North and Joseph Stiglitz, and aims to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Denmark has the highest social progress with 90,57 points, followed by Finland (90,53), Iceland and Norway (each 90,27) and Switzerland (90,10). Denmark scores well in all areas, except in terms of health and life expectancy, which averages around 80,8 years; in neighboring Sweden, it is 82,2. Studies suggest that Denmark's higher tobacco and alcohol consumption is to blame.

The Alpine Republic loses a place in comparison to the previous year, but still counts to the small circle of those countries with very high social progress. In satisfying basic human needs, Austria even manages to rank 5. In addition to the availability of affordable housing and personal safety, this category also includes access to drinking water and sanitary facilities. In the other two main categories "Fundamentals of well-being" and "Opportunities and Opportunities" Austria is ranked 9 and 16. Despite the very positive overall result, Austria is below the expected value in some areas. If GDP is compared with the degree of social progress, there is a clear need to catch up, especially with regard to equal opportunities and education as well as social tolerance.
With 64,85 Social Progress Index's overall score of 100 points, we see a slight year-on-year improvement (2016: 62,88 points). Although global social progress is taking place, it varies significantly in severity and speed, depending on the region. The Social Progress Index has analyzed 128 countries worldwide for 50 social and environmental factors.
www.socialprogressindex.com

Photo / Video: Shutterstock.

Written by Sonja Bettel

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