Canada Scores High On World Happiness Map

The Great White North ranked 10th on a list of the most happy nations whose joy was measured by their health, wealth and access to education.

If living in Canada isn’t helping you shake the blues you may want to consider a move to Denmark – it was named the happiest country on the map.

Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester in England, created the map of merriment and said he believes his project is the first to measure well-being and contentment on a global scale.

“I don’t know if it’s been the same in Canada, but recently there’s been a lot of political interest in looking at happiness as a measure of a country’s performance, rather than just GDP (gross domestic product),” he said.

There’s been growing debate in England over the last few years over whether governments should focus more on their citizen’s happiness than the bottom line, White said.

Despite being one of the world’s most powerful and wealthy countries, the United States ranked 23rd. The United Kingdom needs some work to turn those frowns upside down at 41st and Japan came in 90th place.

Ulrich Schimmack, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, said Canada’s high ranking is consistent with similar life-satisfaction studies.

“I guess we can feel proud about being a country that does very well. … We can feel good about that,” he said. “Of course that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to do even better.”

The African nation of Burundi was at the bottom of the list, preceded by the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe – all countries struggling with poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

White created the map using data from 2002 to 2005 from more than 100 studies involving surveys of 80,000 people in 178 countries.

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Here’s a full list of the countries and how they ranked:

Albania 157
Algeria 134
Angola 149
Antigua And Barbuda 16
Argentina 56
Armenia 172
Australia 26
Austria 3
Azerbaijan 144
Bahamas 5
Bahrain 33
Bangladesh 104
Barbados 27
Belarus 170
Belgium 28
Belize 48
Benin 122
Bhutan 8
Bolivia 117
Bosnia & Herzegovina 137
Botswana 123
Brazil 81
Brunei Darussalam 9
Bulgaria 164
Burkina Faso 152
Burma 130
Burundi 178
Cambodia 110
Cameroon 138
Canada 10
Cape Verdi 100
Central African Republic 145
Chad 159
Chile 71
China 82
Columbia 34
Comoros 97
Congo Democratic 176
Congo Republic 105
Costa Rica 13
Croatia 98
Cuba 83
Cyprus 49
Czech Republic 77
Denmark 1
Djibouti 150
Dominica 29
Dominican Republic 42
Ecuador 111
Egypt 151
El Salvador 61
Equatorial Guinea 135
Eritrea 162
Estonia 139
Ethiopia 153
Fiji 57
Finland 6
France 62
Gabon 88
Gambia 106
Georgia 169
Germany 35
Ghana 89
Greece 84
Grenada 72
Guatemala 43
Guinea 140
Guinea-Bissau 124
Guyana 36
Haiti 118
Honduras 37
Hong Kong 63
Hungary 107
Iceland 4
India 125
Indonesia 64
Iran 96
Ireland 11
Israel 58
Italy 50
Ivory Coast 160
Jamaica 44
Japan 90
Jordan 141
Kazakhstan 101
Kenya 112
Kuwait 38
Kyrgyzstan 65
Laos 126
Latvia 154
Lebanon 113
Lesotho 165
Libya 108
Lithuania 155
Luxembourg 12
Macedonia 146
Madagascar 103
Malawi 158
Malaysia 17
Maldives 66
Mali 131
Malta 14
Mauritania 132
Mauritius 73
Mexico 51
Moldova 175
Mongolia 59
Morocco 114
Mozambique 127
Namibia 74
Nepal 119
Netherlands 15
New Zealand 18
Nicaragua 85
Niger 161
Nigeria 120
Norway 19
Oman 30
Pakistan 166
Palestine 128
Panama 39
Papua New Guinea 86
Paraguay 75
Peru 115
Philippines 78
Poland 99
Portugal 92
Qatar 45
Romania 136
Russia 167
Rwanda 163
Samoa Western 52
Sao Tome And Prinicpe 60
Saudi Arabia 31
Senegal 116
Seychelles 20
Sierra Leone 143
Singapore 53
Slovakia 129
Slovenia 67
Solomon Islands 54
South Africa 109
South Korea 102
Spain 46
Sri Lanka 93
St Kitts And Nevis 21
St Lucia 47
St Vincent And The Grenadines 40
Sudan 173
Suriname 32
Swaziland 168
Sweden 7
Switzerland 2
Syria 142
Taiwan 68
Tajikistan 94
Tanzania 121
Thailand 76
Timor-Leste 69
Togo 147
Tonga 70
Trinidad And Tobago 55
Tunisia 79
Turkey 133
Turkmenistan 171
UAE 22
Uganda 156
Ukraine 174
United Kingdom 41
Uruguay 87
USA 23
Uzbekistan 80
Vanuatu 24
Venezuela 25
Vietnam 95
Yemen 91
Zambia 148
Zimbabwe 177