The United States of America ranks as the 17th happiest country in the world, according to USA Today.
Happiness scores rose worldwide, but not in the US or countries hit hard by economic and political upheaval. The report claims that Americans are not the happiest people on earth, but they do rank a respectable number 17, among 156 countries evaluated for a new United Nations report.
The second annual World Happiness Report released Monday, finds the highest levels of happiness in Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden, all in northern Europe. The lowest ranked were Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo, all in Africa.
The report, from the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, is based on how people around the world rate their overall satisfaction with life, not just on how they feel at any moment. It shows that while economic conditions matter, factors such as life expectancy, freedom and social support do, too. The report says human happiness should be a more important part of how we measure nation-by-nation progress.
"There is now a rising worldwide demand that policy be more closely aligned with what really matters to people, as they themselves characterize their well-being," report co-editor Jeffrey Sachs said in a statement. Sachs is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York.
And the world may be getting just a little happier: Data for the new report, collected between 2010 and 2012, showed overall increases in happiness from the first round, collected between 2005 and 2011. Happiness was up most in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, but down in countries struck by economic upheaval (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) or political convulsions (Egypt).
One reason the USA lags behind leading countries is "a relatively mediocre life expectancy," Sachs said in an e-mail. The USA also lost points, and fell from 11th to 17th, because of perceived declines in "freedom to make life choices," which might be linked to poverty or unemployment, he said.
