Project Background
About Finland
Finland is geographically remote and crosses the Arctic Circle. Its winters are long and severe, lasting up to half the year with some months in darkness when the sun never rises; the temperature can drop to –50°C. The country is the most densely forested in Europe, with ancient pine and birch trees thickly blanketing a landscape eroded flat by ice age glaciation.
Finland was part of Sweden for most of the last millennium, only gaining its independence in 1917. It has an uneasy relationship with its neighbour Russia, and was invaded by the Soviet Union during the Second World War, despite being neutral – and came within a hair’s breadth of being annexed. Recovering from the depravations of the Second World War, Finland began to leave its largely agrarian past behind on its journey to a modern urbanised nation. At the end of the war, three-quarters of the population lived in the countryside, but today this proportion is in the cities. As the 21st century dawned, Finland embraced technology, social reform and sustainable ‘green’ choices, transforming the country. Today, the United Nations (UN) ranks Finland’s inhabitants as the happiest in the world.
The World Happiness Report
In 2012 the UN published its first World Happiness Report – a yearly survey of the happiness of people in different countries. It looks at what causes happiness and misery, and ranks each country based on six factors that have the most influence: income, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and corruption levels.
Finland has always scored highly in the UN’s Happiness Index, and for five years running (2018–2022) it has been ranked first. Finland is the most content nation in the world. Why? Perhaps in part to a doggedness to succeed (the Finnish characteristic sisu) and a strong community spirit, which can be ascribed to the country's harsh climate – pressing Finns not only to be self-reliant but also to acknowledge the necessity of help given and received. Good governance also contributes – two examples being, in 1906, granting women the right to vote, the first European country to do so, and in 2008, tackling homelessness by providing flats to those with nowhere to live, so that, today, Finland is the only European country where homelessness is falling.
Gallery background images: Matti Poutvaara (1909–1989)
Displayed around the gallery walls as part of the exhibition are large photographs taken by the Finnish photographer Matti Poutvaara (1909–1989) between the mid-1940s and the start of the 1950s. They depict a now-lost Finland, a period during which the country changed fundamentally, as the rural gave way to the urban and modernity of today.