Researchers examined six factors that contribute to individual happiness: (1) GDP per capita, (2) healthy life expectancy, (3) perceived corruption in government and business sectors, (4) citizens’ perceived freedom to live the lives they wanted, (5) generosity (i.e. whether they had recently given to charity) and (6) “social support,” namely whether they had a friend or relative to count on in case of emergency.
By these measures, Denmark is the world’s happiest country, followed by Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. Canada, Finland, Austria, Iceland and Australia round out the top 10. U.S. of A. is at No. 17
