...on the world map of happiness that is.
If you're looking for happily ever after, researchers in England are saying Denmark is the place to live. They're ranked numero uno in a recent report published by the good folks at the University of Leicester in England.
Meanwhile, the US came in at number 23. I tell ya - hubby's home country of Ireland is lookin better and better every day. They rank 11 in this study.
More after the flip...
CNN ran a report on this study on-line today (
http://www.cnn.com/...) and as far as Denmark goes...
It's the happiest country in the world while Burundi in Africa is the most unhappy, according to a new report by a British scientist released on Friday.
Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at the University of Leicester in central England, based his study on data from 178 countries and 100 global studies from the likes of the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
"We're looking much more at whether you are satisfied with your life in general," White told Reuters. "Whether you are satisfied with your situation and environment."
The main factors that affected happiness were health provision, wealth and education, according to White who said his research had produced the "first world map of happiness."
Following behind Denmark came Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and the Bahamas.
At the bottom came the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Burundi. The United States came in at 23rd, Britain was in 41st place, Germany 35th and France 62nd.
Countries involved in conflicts, such as Iraq, were not included.
"Smaller countries tend to be a little happier because there is a stronger sense of collectivism and then you also have the aesthetic qualities of a country," White said.
Wow - twenty-third. You'd think the last remaining superpower on the planet would have at least made the top ten in this study!
For a look at the data, and a table of rankings of other countries, you can go here - http://www.le.ac.uk/...
I thought it'd be interesting to see where we fit into the happiness spectrum here. General outlook, or consider the criteria of the above report (income, education, access to healthcare... those sorts of things).
Vote. Leave comments. Have a little fun with this.
