The World is Actually Getting Happier

Every year for 17 years, researchers asked hundreds of thousands of people in 52 countries the same two questions:

"Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, rather happy, not very happy, not at all happy" and " All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?"

And despite the current tough economic outlook, they found that happiness is actually on the rise around the world:

"It's a surprising finding," said University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart, who headed up the survey. "It's widely believed that it's almost impossible to raise an entire country's happiness level."

Denmark is the happiest nation and Zimbabwe the the most glum, he found. (Zimbabwe's longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was sworn in as president for a sixth term Sunday after a widely discredited runoff in which he was the only candidate. Observers said the runoff was marred by violence and intimidation.)

The United States ranks 16th.

Link - Thanks Geekazoid!