Helsinki, Finland - A Happy Place
for good environmental policies. Finland is the first country in the world to prepare plans for a National Circular Economy. Have you heard of that, Circular Economy? It's basically recycling, reusing, repairing, lower consumption, protecting the environment from climate change, pollution, waste and loss of biodiversity. That's another reason why people here are so 00:00 intro
:14 content
:28 strong economy
1:03 beautiful city
1:45 small city
2:24 history
3:41 location
4:19 on foot
4:45 when to visit
6:33 getting here
7:02 not in Scandinavia
7:23 ethnic groups
7:48 school
8:23 environment
8:59 taxes
9:37 more movies
The world's happiest people live in Finland, according to many surveys. So let's take a look at Helsinki to find out what's going on here. Why are these people so happy?
They will say it's more a matter of being content, being satisfied with their lives rather than giddy, ha-ha happy all the time and that's because their society functions very well.
You will find many comments down below that debate this issue, many from locals with a different opinion about happiness here.
One correction on taxation, I mentioned income tax is 57%, but this is only for the multi-millionaires. Normal income tax is like most other European countries, 25-30%.
The economy is strong, the educational levels are high, there is a decent level of economic equality, and the society provides services such as health and medical, retirement pensions, and cleaning up the cities and maintaining the infrastructure that makes everything work beautifully together. So the residents are very happy about all of that.
Another reason why their life is good is this city is a beautiful place. It has lovely buildings. It's nicely designed with plenty of sidewalk cafés and outdoor activities for those warm summer months, good streets, lots of bicycle paths, and pedestrian areas with enough urban density to provide those walkable neighborhoods and shops and cafés nearby, but it's not crowded.
Helsinki's town planners have created a livable city that was praised at one time by the Harvard Architectural Digest as the best-designed city in Europe.
July is an excellent time to visit because the weather is at its best. The city is not crowded, and hotel rates tend to drop. That's because July is the peak month for locals to take their vacations,
nither at thair
in the Finninh either at their summer cottages in the Finnish countryside, or elsewhere in Europe, especially on the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. Business travel also grinds to a halt in July, leaving hotels looking for customers and lowering their rates to attract the few remaining travelers. All of the scenes in this video were photographed during the month of July, which is when I always bring my groups to visit there. While I tell you a bit more about Helsinki and Finland, I'll continue showing some scenes of the city, focusing for now on Esplanade Park that most popular green space in t
:14 content
:28 strong economy
1:03 beautiful city
1:45 small city
2:24 history
3:41 location
4:19 on foot
4:45 when to visit
6:33 getting here
7:02 not in Scandinavia
7:23 ethnic groups
7:48 school
8:23 environment
8:59 taxes
9:37 more movies
The world's happiest people live in Finland, according to many surveys. So let's take a look at Helsinki to find out what's going on here. Why are these people so happy?
They will say it's more a matter of being content, being satisfied with their lives rather than giddy, ha-ha happy all the time and that's because their society functions very well.
You will find many comments down below that debate this issue, many from locals with a different opinion about happiness here.
One correction on taxation, I mentioned income tax is 57%, but this is only for the multi-millionaires. Normal income tax is like most other European countries, 25-30%.
The economy is strong, the educational levels are high, there is a decent level of economic equality, and the society provides services such as health and medical, retirement pensions, and cleaning up the cities and maintaining the infrastructure that makes everything work beautifully together. So the residents are very happy about all of that.
Another reason why their life is good is this city is a beautiful place. It has lovely buildings. It's nicely designed with plenty of sidewalk cafés and outdoor activities for those warm summer months, good streets, lots of bicycle paths, and pedestrian areas with enough urban density to provide those walkable neighborhoods and shops and cafés nearby, but it's not crowded.
Helsinki's town planners have created a livable city that was praised at one time by the Harvard Architectural Digest as the best-designed city in Europe.
July is an excellent time to visit because the weather is at its best. The city is not crowded, and hotel rates tend to drop. That's because July is the peak month for locals to take their vacations,
nither at thair
in the Finninh either at their summer cottages in the Finnish countryside, or elsewhere in Europe, especially on the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. Business travel also grinds to a halt in July, leaving hotels looking for customers and lowering their rates to attract the few remaining travelers. All of the scenes in this video were photographed during the month of July, which is when I always bring my groups to visit there. While I tell you a bit more about Helsinki and Finland, I'll continue showing some scenes of the city, focusing for now on Esplanade Park that most popular green space in t