A new study on global happiness puts Denmark at the top of the list. The study factored in economic grown, democracy, and social tolerance. According to CNN, "researchers at the University of Michigan said Denmark's prosperity, stability and democratic government placed the country at the top of the rankings."
Rounding out the top ten were:
* Puerto Rico
* Colombia
* Iceland
* Northern Ireland
* Republic of Ireland
* Switzerland
* Netherlands
* Canada
* Austria
So which countries got the short end of the happiness stick? Zimbabwe, "with its soaring inflation and continuing political crisis, unsurprisingly ranked 97th." Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research suspects that "there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness. There is also a correlation between democracy and peace. Democracies are less likely to fight each other than non-democracies."
And the 10 most unhappy countries (after Zimbabwe) were:
* Armenia
* Moldova
* Belarus
* Ukraine
* Albania
* Iraq
* Bulgaria
* Georgia
* Russia
What do you think? Were you surprised by any of the countries? How do you feel about where you live?
(Oh, and if you were wondering, the United States, as the world's richest nation, ranked 16th.)