There are so many ways Finland leads the pack that it’s impossible to separate them all. First off, the country has historic, world-beating levels of female participation in politics, with some 60% of ministers being women. Then there’s Helsinki’s commitment to getting ordinary people involved in the daily business of government, like those times they held actual cabinet meetings in front of an audience of 600 people – and did it outside the capital, where real Finns could witness it. Freedom of the press is also so enshrined in law that the nation is ranked higher than the US for freedom of speech. Not bad for a cold country of under 5.5 million people.
