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Pursuing Happiness? Call your travel agent.

Feeling happy? Feeling blue? Maybe it's not you; it's where you live.

If you want to live in one of the top three happiest places in the world, then you had better put on your mukluks and your long undies and grab your plane ticket. At least, according to the first ever World Map of Happiness.

Map creator Adrian White, an analytical social psychologist at University of Leicester, UK sorted through databases compiled and published by the CIA, UNESCO, the WHO and five other accredited and renowned groups.

In 100 studies worldwide, 80,000 participants were asked questions concerning happiness and satisfaction. The result was a picture of subjective well-being.

For Americans, know news is not necessarily good news but it certainly isn’t all that bad. We may believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but we also may not be practicing - or achieving - all of those beliefs.

On the map, we are in the red, which is bad for weather but really good for happiness. Perhaps it is our idyllic vision of bliss on a tropical island.

The map shows the top four happiest nations in the world are out in the cold but darn happy about being there. From #1 to #4 they are Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Iceland. (I’m getting goose-bumps already.)

North America does not even make the cut until Canada which is #10. Warm countries begin with the Bahamas at #5 followed by Finland, Sweden, Bhutan and Brunei to complete the Top Ten.

Where is America? Number 23! Who knew?

We are, however, dong better than Germany at #34, the United Kingdom at #41, France at #62, China at #82, Japan at #90 and Russia at #167.

Don't shoot the messenger; the map is based on how people feel they feel after all.

The three unhappiest countries on the map? Democratic Republic of the Congo #176, Zimbabwe #177 and Burundi #178.

Based on the factors used to determine happiness and create the map, perhaps we should add a Declaration of Happiness to our Declaration of Independence and proclaim our unalienable right to health, wealth and access to education. (You might be able to extrapolate just what Americans are not happy about.)

The burning question for me is "Where in the world did I put my mukluks?"

University of Leicester

Map graphic courtesy of Adrian White, Analytic Social Psychologist, University of Leicester.

 ©2006
Virginia Greene
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