World Happiness

Would you consider yourself happy?
What makes you happy?
How do you know you are happy?

Happiness is one of those intangibles. And yet we value it so much that it is a part of our constitution. We have the right to "pursue" happiness. How does one do that exactly?

I for one find that the feeling of happiness comes and goes - usually quite unexpectedly. Yesterday for example I was happy that a couple of books that I had bound turned out exactly as I had expected/hoped/envisioned. Is that how we define happiness - when something goes as we hoped/expected? Not so for me. I've found that I can wake up feeling happy for no apparent reason at all.

Here is some interesting data:

The 20 happiest nations in the World are:

1 - Denmark
2 - Switzerland
3 - Austria
4 - Iceland
5 - The Bahamas
6 - Finland
7 - Sweden
8 - Bhutan
9 - Brunei
10 - Canada
11 - Ireland
12 - Luxembourg
13 - Costa Rica
14 - Malta
15 - The Netherlands
16 - Antigua and Barbuda
17 - Malaysia
18 - New Zealand
19 - Norway
20 - The Seychelles

Other notable results include:
23 - USA
35 - Germany
41 - UK
62 - France
82 - China
90 - Japan
125 - India
167 - Russia

The three least happy countries were:
176 - Democratic Republic of the Congo
177 - Zimbabwe
178 - Burundi

Source: University of Leicester