The Columbia University Earth Institute released the 2013 World Happiness Report. Here's a summary:
1) The world is slightly happier than it was 5 years ago despite the global financial crisis. People in Sub-Saharan Africa are gaining a bit of wealth and becoming much happier. The tendency for Latin American countries to be happier in general (what Ronald Inglehart calls the "latino bonus") perseveres. Mexico came in at 16th, but the United States, which is comparatively wealthy, is in 17th place.
2) Democratic, socialist countries (democracies with high taxes and strong social welfare programs) are happier than other countries, in general. Of course, this might be because they are richer countries, generally. There are reasons to doubt this hypothesis. After all, the United States trails far behind other wealthy democracies, such as our neighbors to the north. Canada came in 6th!
3) Whether you live in the tropics doesn't seem to matter much. Countries with sunny weather aren't especially happier, whereas the places with the longest, coldest, darkest winters are among the happiest. Denmark is always so gosh darn happy! Jamaicans, not so much.
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