The World's Happiness Report recently released by Earth Institute ranked the United States at the 17th spot on Monday. The country lagged behind Canada, Australia, U.A.E, and Mexico.
According the Columbia University's organization, the most recommended nations would be in the northern Europe which includes the top happiest Denmark, followed by Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.
One should avoid Egypt and those gravely affected by the Eurocrisis, if one is looking to find heightened satisfaction and happiness in life.
This survey around the globe covers 2010 thru 2012 and is in accordance to the organization's results also released the previous year. The study further says that although the world became more generous and happier place in a span of five years, still some political and economic disorders have greatly affected the levels of perceived welfare in some countries.
The ranks for Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal have notably declined due to the effects of the crisis in the Eurozone and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Myanmar experienced similar falls because of recent turmoil in their politics and society. Egypt has suffered the greatest decline in satisfaction ranking. Out of a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 the greatest happiness, Egypt got an average of 4.3 for 2012 against its 2007 score of 5.4.
Also referring these nations, the researchers further shares that the expected losses would be worse soon merely due to degrading income levels mainly because of the notable perception of happiness relating to the availability of freedom in making life's key choices.
On the other hand, the largest increases in ranking, namely Angola, Albania, and Zimbabwe, were found in the Latin Americas, Sub Saharan Africa, and the Caribbean. It was apparent that declining corruption in these nations has contributed as well in improving their ranking.
National officials who are determined to increase the levels of happiness and satisfactions of their people must invest on health, specifically allocating more budgets in mental illnesses. These diseases are said to be one major source of misery in the surveyed countries according to one of the authors.
