United States Takes Spot as World's 17th Happiest Country

Science World Report ^ | 09/09/2013 | Kathleen Lees

[Jimmy Valentine]

Northern Europe is home to todays “Lotus Eaters”.

[SeekAndFind]

I had forgotten about these people described in Homer’s Odyssey.

They were a race of people living on an island near North Africa (possibly Djerba) dominated by lotus plants. The lotus fruits and flowers were the primary food of the island and were narcotic, causing the people to sleep in peaceful apathy.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Smack into the ten ring! You are entitled to a cigar or coconut!

Nice to know that someone still reads the classics.

[esoxmagnum]

since many of ours states have more population than many of those countries, they should break down the US by states. I bet it would be surprising to the world.

[x]

When looking at a survey of over 156 countries, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden were ranked as the happiest places, and regions in Sub-Saharan Africa were noted as being the least likely places for overall life satisfaction, according to the report.

Most of the Africans I've known have been -- not to be too patronizing, I hope -- happy and cheerful people. Some of the Scandinavians I've known have been dour, unemotional people. Not all of them, but enough to make me wonder. Maybe the Africans were just happy not to be living in Africa anymore, but findings like this make me wonder a little how the results were compiled.

[9YearLurker]

How does the UK have so much more happiness than the US explained by generosity?