20 countries with the best work-life balance. Did the U.S. make the list?

Work-life balance is an elusive goal, and one that's only gotten harder throughout the pandemic. Yet some countries have excelled, by offering generous paid leave, shorter working hours and other benefits that help their citizens strike a happy medium. 

Price comparison platform Compare the Market ranked countries across the world to find locations where work-life balance was the best. They looked at eight factors, including hours worked in a year, paid leave, maternal and paternal leave policies and each country's happiness score. 

Unsurprisingly, Scandinavian countries took many of the top spots on their ranking. Finland, which has been named the Happiest Country in the World by the World Happiness Report five years in a row, took the second spot on this list. Mothers get a whopping 161 weeks of maternity leave (compared to zero weeks in the U.S.), and the country also boasts 30 additional days of paid leave for all employees each year. 

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"It can be easy to let your work–life balance stray more to the work side," Anthony Fleming, Compare the Market's general manager for health insurance, said in the release. "However, our research shows that living in a country where you have more time to enjoy life moments, from bringing a newborn into the world, to having more opportunity to do the things you love, can likely increase your overall happiness.

European countries like Germany and Spain also ranked high for work-life balance, due to their lower number of hours worked per year. German employees work the least amount of hours in the world, clocking in 1,349 hours per year. That's compared to the U.S., where employees work 1,801 hours per year. What would you do with nearly 500 extra hours of free time? 

Read more: Does a 4 day workweek really foster work-life balance? 

Take a look at the 20 countries that made the list — along with their average hours worked per year, total number of weeks of paid family leave and their happiness scores.