NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 19, 2018

Q: Finland was rated as the happiest nation in the world while the United States slipped a few notches in the United Nations’ 2018 World Happiness Report. Where is Finland?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Europe’s Nordic countries usually lead in the annual survey of factors such as income, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. Finland replaced its northern neighbor in the number one spot. What other Nordic nation is on Finland’s northern border??

A. Denmark

B. Iceland

C. Norway

D. Sweden


C. Finland has land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east. Finland rose to the top from fifth place in the happiness rankings last year, and Norway fell to second followed by Denmark and Iceland. Sweden ranked ninth.


Q: The United States dropped from 14th to 18th in the survey which cited health problems such as obesity, depression and the opioid crisis as leading to a drop in life expectancy at birth “nearly unprecedented for a high-income country in peacetime.” Which of these nations has the longest life expectancy?

A. Iceland

B. Finland

C. Norway

D. Sweden


A. According to the CIA World Factbook, Iceland’s life expectancy at birth is 83.1 years compared with 82.1 in Sweden, 81.9 in Norway, 81 in Finland, 80 in the United States and 79.5 in Denmark.


Q: Income is a top factor in the happiness survey with the gross domestic product per person in the top 10 nations 30 times as high as it is in the bottom 10 countries. Which of these nations has the highest GDP per capita?

A. Denmark

B. Finland

C. Sweden

D. United States


D. The United States GDP per capita is higher than all the Nordic countries except Norway, but U.S. income inequality is much higher than those nations. Finland has the least income inequality of the 150 nations listed by the CIA World Factbook.


Q: People in the happiest nations report more confidence in their governments and other institutions. Which of these nations has the highest national tax rate?

A. Denmark

B. Finland

C. Sweden

D. United States


B. Finland’s taxes and other national government revenue amount to 54.4 percent its gross domestic product, compared with 22 percent of GDP in the United States. Finns report high satisfaction with government supported health care, college tuition, transportation and other social programs. All of the Nordic nations have higher taxes than the U.S.