Spotify's List Of The Most Zen Countries Will Make You Want To Book A Flight

Just weeks after Spotify gifted users a look back at the 2010s with its "Best of the Decade" playlist, the streaming service is sharing more insights into what people tuned into in the past while looking ahead to 2020. According to Spotify's predictions, the focus on self-care will carry over into the next decade, as the company saw a 113% increase in users streaming meditation playlists around the globe in 2019. Spotify's December 2019 "Most Zen Countries" list takes listeners' streaming habits into consideration, and there's definitely a chance you'll be tempted to book a ticket after checking out these picks.

To give you a better idea of how the company determined and ranked different countries' "zen" levels, you can look at the factors used to determine the rankings. Spotify looked at how many listeners per country were creating meditation and yoga playlists with the streaming service. Spotify then came up with the calculation of the percent of the listeners in respective countries creating meditation and yoga playlists by looking at the rate creation of these kinds of playlists "of all time."

According to this criteria, Sweden currently reigns as the most zen country as of December 2019, as Swedish users made playlists with meditation and yoga content at a "521% rate higher than listeners in other countries." Interestingly enough, several other Scandinavian countries or neighboring destinations followed close behind. Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Switzerland round out the top five.

Spotify's most zen countries are also some pretty popular travel destinations, so I think your 2020 travel bucket list is about to grow. Not only will you get your pics for the 'Gram, but maybe you'll also come back from vacation actually relaxed for once.

The 10 most "zen" countries, according to Spotify, are:

1. Sweden
2. Norway
3. Iceland
4. Denmark
5. Switzerland
6. Australia
7. Liechtenstein
8. Netherlands
9. New Zealand
10. Austria

The increase in this kind of listening experience actually isn't too surprising, as the company predicts the focus on self-care and empowerment will continue to grow in 2020 and beyond with inspiring hits like Lizzo's "Good as Hell" and Ariana Grande's "Thank U, Next" dominating on the streaming service.

Again, these are just some of the insights the company found while analyzing listener data, so I'd recommend checking out their finds while you get ready to ring in 2020.