World's Happiest Countries: Gallup Survey (PHOTOS)

While the United States may still be the richest nation on Earth, it can't claim to be as happy as Denmark or Finland. In fact, according to a new analysis of data provided by the Gallup World Poll, the relationship between overall life satisfaction and wealth may not be as straightforward as previously thought.

Looking at data collected across 132 countries, the Gallup Organization based their marks -- released this month in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology -- on representative samples of more than 136,000 people in each country. Respondents were asked how they would rate their lives on a scale from zero (worst possible) to 10 (best possible), as well as answering a series of questions on positive or negative emotions.

See Gallup's top 15 countries, each with a mean score between 7.0 and 7.7, here:

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Denmark: 7.7

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Happiest Country

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Smiley Happy Pure Joy

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The Happiest Countries

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The Happiest Countries

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Comments

[Nofuzzydreams]

02:27 PM on 07/26/2010

Not bad for the US. Listening to the liberal nuts and Michelle Obama, you would think we rank at the bottom of all countries!!!

[JaxReader]

03:34 PM on 07/26/2010

We should be at 10. But unfortunately we lost about 2.9 points because of the ignorance of our neocons, and their propaganda machine, Fox.

[Frances Limoncelli]

01:20 PM on 07/20/2010

Forbes.com lists Panama as 12th, why is it 15th on HuffPo? Also, neither media outlet mentioned that out of all 155 countries, Panama had the highest score in the "daily life" category, which is probably the most relevant of all the categories if you're trying to figure out if it's a nice place to live. Panama's climate, natural beauty, U.S. friendly democratic government and low cost of living are just some of the many reasons American's are choosing it as their ideal place to live, vacation or retire. That's why my company, Amble Resorts, chose it for the location of our eco-luxe residence resort development, The Resort at Isla Palenque (www.islapalenque.com).

[florciampoli]

04:26 AM on 08/16/2010

Tks for the beautiful comments about my hometown. ♥

[brumeistern]

08:18 AM on 07/17/2010

It also depends on what your passions are. If you love surfing, you will be miserable in Denmark, skiing, the same if you live in Brazil, nature, in Japan, technology, in Tahiti.
But the common denominator here is money. Richer countries are happier.

[Carol Forsberg]

11:25 AM on 07/19/2010

And, the less religion involved in politics seems to support this fact.

[brumeistern]

07:54 AM on 07/17/2010

When I read this on Forbes, I almost believed. But seing that Brazil is placed right after USA, I have to criticize this research. Brazilians pretend to be happy, trust me. We have one week of hapiness every year (Carnaval) and one month (or less) every four years (World Cup). That's all.
Therefore, if the result for Brazil is not real, I have to assume it is not real for other countries, either.
In a documentary, people all around big cities were stopped on the street and asked whether they were happy with their life in Brazil or not. 95% answered very happy. The same people were stopped by another crew, a block farther and received the proposal to move, with their family, to a country of their choice. 95% accepted.
How come ??? If one is so happy, why move to another country ??? Because life is terrible in Brazil compared to richer countries. But Brazilians want to believe they have a nice life.

[kmerrittdotcom]

05:52 PM on 07/12/2010

Maybe they should've picked a better photo for the USA, considering that flag is being flown at half-mast. Not exactly the happiest photo.

[mathew]

09:59 AM on 07/11/2010

US = 7.2 Denmark & Finland 7.7 the Max ????

So Americans are only pretending to be happy ????

[Ramkshrestha]

05:28 AM on 07/11/2010

If you are not in the listed countries, do not worry. You could be happier than them. It's up to you.

[DrFrann]

01:43 AM on 07/10/2010

Time to plan a trip,,,that sense of well being is really priceless...

[SpeakupNation]

12:44 PM on 07/09/2010

Socialist propaganda! How can anyone be happy with universal health care and social safety nets?

[fwillerup]

01:09 AM on 07/09/2010

I'd like to see the standard deviation, not the mean. My hypothesis is that Denmark (and other Nordic countries) are on average happier than, say, the US, but I think the US has a bigger spread.

(I am a Dane living in the US.)

[brumeistern]

08:02 AM on 07/17/2010

You are absolutely right. Scandinavia is great for the masses. The state takes care of you. The more incompetent you are, the more the state worries and spends on you. But someone has to pay for that. Who ??? The smarter, more productive, more efficient part of society.
In the USA, it is not so (although still too much for my taste). Smarter, more productive, more efficient people make more money, have better lifes, have more interesting jobs, more freedom. So, the deviation will be much higher.
Since I consider myself to be in this group, I would rather live in the USA than in Scandinavia.
One more thing. How can one living in a country with 2 months of summer (summer, really ???) can be so happy ??? Beats me...

[kiva667]

06:36 PM on 07/08/2010

The picture chosen for Costa Rica is one of tourists at the resort area of Playa Manuel Antonio. How can such a scene be related to the happiness of its citizens?

[efmendez]

02:14 PM on 07/08/2010

Panama is indeed one of the happiest places on Earth. The picture you chose, however, is not flattering at all. It would be great if you could look into that.

[Dale Andersen]

01:56 AM on 07/07/2010

It's BS. Every year we get these reports that say the Nordics are the most corruption-free countries. And now there's a poll that says they're the happiest. Something's wrong. If I lived in a place where I couldn't grease the wheels of the bureaucracy with a bribe or two, I'd be miserable.

[johnryan]

11:52 PM on 07/06/2010

maybe a little socialism wouldnt hurt i see all the top countries are socialistic

[lunarsnare]

07:27 AM on 07/08/2010

And yet those Nordic European countries have an higher then average suicide rate.

[luck3y]

11:09 PM on 07/06/2010

Wonder who rated their own countries as zero, that's really the list to see.

[lunarsnare]

07:31 AM on 07/08/2010

Probably the darker and different skinned people of the earth glaringly absent from this euro centric poll in favor of white and rich.