Denmark Is Home to the World’s First Happiness Museum

The world’s first museum dedicated only to happiness opened last summer in Copenhagen, and its only goal is to make people happy. Located in the second happiest country in the world (according to the United Nation’s World Happiness Report), this 2,585 square-foot museum is filled with interactive exhibitions and research results about the science and history of the nice warm feeling we all seek constantly.

The Happiness Museum was created by the Happiness Research Institute, a Danish independent institute that focuses specifically on well-being, happiness and quality of life. They wanted to share their knowledge with every single person in the world, after all, as their CEO Meik Wiking says, “It’s the same things that drive happiness no matter where we’re from, and I hope that people will see that in the exhibition.” Some installations show how each person feels happiness and why laughter is contagious, while others discuss how to analyze a smile to figure out if it is genuine or fake. Basically, Wiking explains, this is a “place where people can experience happiness from different perspectives.”

The Happiness Museum has eight separate rooms where visitors can find interactive displays regarding different perspectives on happiness. Each installation has a way of explaining or analyzing feelings of happiness in different people and situations, but the main premise of the museum is that we often try to look for happiness in the wrong places.