World's Happiest Places

Another day another classification! ;-)

Just a few day after my post about the Quality of Life Ranking, I found another interesting ranking: the world happiest places ranking (the full article can be found on Forbes)!
The report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (a Paris-based group of 30 countries with democratic governments that provides economic and social statistics and data) looked at subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction. Did people feel like their lives were dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?

To answer that question, the OECD used data from a Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries around the world last year. The poll asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.

Some sample questions: Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesterday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday? In each country, a representative sample of no more than 1,000 people, age 15 or older, were surveyed. The poll was scored numerically on a scale of 1-100. The average score was 62.4.

In detail, the top 10 from the 10th to the 1st place is:

10. Belgium
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.3
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 75.5
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $49,888
Unemployment Rate: 6.5

9. Norway
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.5
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 84.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $98,822
Unemployment Rate: 2.6%

8. New Zealand
Satisfaction With Present Life: 76.7
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 85.5
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $30,556
Unemployment Rate: 4%

7. Switzerland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 77.4
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 80.9
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $65,563
Unemployment Rate: 3%

6. Canada
Satisfaction With Present Life: 78.0
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 87.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $46,799
Unemployment Rate: 6.1%

5. Ireland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 81.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 91.4
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $63,788
Unemployment Rate: 6.2%

4. Sweden
Satisfaction With Present Life: 82.7
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 85.6
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $54,908
Unemployment Rate: 6.4%

3. Netherlands
Satisfaction With Present Life: 85.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 88.2
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $55,453
Unemployment Rate: 4.5%

2. Finland
Satisfaction With Present Life: 85.9
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 88.0
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $55,344
Unemployment Rate: 6.4%

and the Winner is...

1. Denmark
Satisfaction With Present Life: 90.1
Predicted Satisfaction With Future Life: 92.3
2009 Gross Domestic Product Per Capita: $68,362
Unemployment Rate: 2%