How happy are you? This is a question that many of us ponder, and it’s also something that the United Nations has studied at great length. In their World Happiness Report, 156 countries around the world have been ranked from the most happy to the least happy. Some of the factors considered included the state of healthcare and overall health, education, income, personal satisfaction and safety. Some of the results might surprise you! If you want to visit some of the happiest places on earth, here they are:
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Scandinavia Although it’s dark for half of the year, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway came in as among the happiest in the world. Denmark was found to be the happiest country in 2012, as well. What are they doing correctly in these chilly countries? In the opinion of Professor of Economics Christian Bjørnskov from Aarhus Business School, the Danish people have a high level of trust for each other, even strangers. They also tend to spend their money socializing with others, as opposed to buying material goods. The best times to visit Scandinavia might be the spring and summer, when there is a lot of sunlight and the weather is mild. If you are interested in seeing the northern lights, however, and don’t mind the rather dark days of winter, you might not mind visiting this happy section of the world in the fall and winter.
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Europe The happiest countries in central and western Europe include Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria. If you’re looking for great skiing in the winter, you can’t do much better than the Swiss and Austrian Alps! Any of these countries are beautiful at any time of year.
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North America You might be surprised to find that the United States ranked at the 17th happiest country in the world, just below Mexico. Canada was found to be happier than both of these countries, and comes in at 6th place. Canadians might view their social support systems to be stronger than those from the United States, which may have had some effect on the ranking system.
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Latin America Although the Latin American countries did not rank in the top ten happiest countries in the World Happiness Report, a Gallup report last year identified eight of the top ten happiest countries to be in Central or South America; Costa Rica came out on the top of that particular list. Family support, how happy people feel on a daily basis and other factors were considered for the Gallup poll.
Some of the countries that placed toward the bottom of the happiness list included Togo, Benin, Central African Republic and Rwanda.
Have you visited any of the top ten happiest countries in the world? Did you feel a sense of overall happiness there that you haven’t felt elsewhere? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
