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How a post-Soviet nation became a Gen-Z haven.
In 2024, the World Happiness Report named Lithuania the happiest place on Earth for under-30s. As a veritable Disney Land fit with cheap booze, great weather, and luscious landscapes, it’s easy to see why.
But with young Lithuanians rating their wellbeing at an impressive 7.76 out of 10, the nation soars ahead of the UK and US, which languish at 32nd and 62nd in the rankings respectively. So what exactly can we learn from Lithuania’s success? And why are so many of us accustomed to associating this Eastern European nation with its post-Soviet past, rather than its present-day optimism?
Dazed’s Emma Friedlander recently had the pleasure of speaking with some of Lithuania’s under-30s, including the Bakutyte sisters Aistė, Algė, and Adelė, who have since relocated to London.
The three young women express a nostalgia for Lithuania’s outdoorsy lifestyle, through which they enjoyed the national pastime of mushroom foraging – a practice designed to encourage connection with nature. ‘Honestly, life here sucks’, Aistė tells Friedlander of her new life in the British capital. ‘Life [in Lithuania] is just better on basic, practical terms’.
Lithuania’s government certainly seems to be prioritising the younger population in ways its Western counterparts aren’t. From generous grants to fund creative projects, widespread access to tertiary education, and a thriving tech sector that has bolstered the nations average gross earnings by 12.6%, under-30s are experiencing a country vastly different from the one their parents grew up in.
‘Between youngsters and elderly people, it seems like we live in different countries,’ says Sandra, a young Lithuanian living in Kaunas, the nation’s second largest city. ‘We not only have different experiences and different technologies that we grew up with, we also have very different experiences of what freedom is.’
Historically, the nation has a startingly high suicide rate, which spiked following it’s split from the Soviet Union in 1990s. The collapse of the USSR exposed Lithuania to a vastly different social environment, which had a damaging impact on the population’s mental health. 25 years ago, Lithuania was characterised by poverty and instability, with an estimated 25% of the population leaving over the last quarter-century.
Despite a dip in these statistics, reports from 2020 showed that the levels of suicide amongst young people, especially the male population, were still relatively high when compared with neighbouring countries like Latvia and Estonia.
Still, this unassuming Eastern European nation has managed to overcome dire socio-economic factors and establish a thriving reputation amongst its under-30s, thanks in part to the explosion of the tech industry.
Nord Security, known widely for its VPN tool, is one of multiple tech firms employing huge numbers of young Lithuanians. Nord alone has a workforce of around 70% millennial and 20% Gen Z staff.
‘Everyone is young, happy, hungry, super talented,’ the company’s CEO, Tomas Okmanas told Fortune.
