According to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, Denmark stands as the happiest country in the world with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere. The survey is carried out by a global network of social scientists regularly.

“Denmark is prosperous — not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous.”
Ronald Ingelhart, the director of this study and a political scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research said there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.

Puerto Rico, Sweden, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada are among the happiest countries in the world. The world’s richest nation, the united States, ranks 16th.

Zimbabwe which is torn by political and social strife is the least happy according to the survey.
The survey which was first done in 1981, has kept to two simple questions till today.

1) “Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy?”
2) “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”

“Finally, the most important approach to determine one’s happiness is through the extent which people have free choice in how they live their lives,” Inglehart said.

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