Below are two interesting research results. What confuses me is this:

• Finland and Denmark are in Top5 suicide nations in Europe
• Finland and Denmark are in the same time in Top2 of happiest nations on earth

So the questions are:

• does this mean they commit suicide in the most happiest ways and moods, hence die as most happiest people?
• or does this mean Finnish and Danish people are very good at deceiving, and while convincing the rest they are the most happy nations, they produce suicide to evade the “unaccomplished” and falsely presented happiness?
• or does this mean that, statistics are as good as their interpretation and that just arranging figures in a way that makes sense doesn’t make sense at all in a broader perspective, i.e. is it plausible that separately taken statistics make pretty good sense, but when put together under scrutiny they tend to clash and contradict each other and that a more systemic analysis is required over the data?
• and on top, given one research measured happiest living people, how would someone measure people of which nation die most happy? (more as a thought exercise)

Other interesting facts:

• Cyprus, even though in EU for quite few years, is placed for unknown reasons (political or geographical ones?!) in Asia region
• Hungary is consistent - leads the suicide group and occupies place 103 in the happiest nations

As a fun note on the statistics, as one physics professor at PUB.ro used to say during our first year:
“Statistics is like this: if you put your head into the freezer at -50′ celsius and your butt into the oven at 124′ celsius, statistically on average you feel just comfortably perfect”

Enjoy the readings:

The World’s Happiest Countries

Prevention of suicide and attempted suicide in Denmark