Happy together

As was recently shown in the annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey of the United States, a person’s well-being can vary widely from one community to the next—e.g., Santa Cruz rated highest in California, while Chico was lowest in the state. But how does the happiness of Americans overall compare to that of citizens of other countries in the world? According to the U.N.’s 2017 World Happiness Report, we rank 14 out of 155 countries, with a rating of 6.993 out of 10. Norwegians are apparently the happiest people in the world (7.537), while citizens of the Central African Republic report being the least happy (2.693).

Ten happiest countries:

1. Norway

2. Denmark

3. Iceland

4. Switzerland

5. Finland

6. Netherlands

7. Canada

8. New Zealand

9. Australia

10. Sweden