The U.S. Ranks 13th In Happiness. Here's How We Get To No. 1.

If you're happy and you know it, the United Nations knows why. Ahead of the International Day of Happiness on March 20, the U.N. just published its 2016 World Happiness Report, complete with insights into how the most cheerful countries got that way. Of the 157 countries listed in the report, the U.S. ranks 13th -- with a score of 7.104 on a 10-point scale. By comparison, the happiest country, Denmark, scored a 7.526, and the least happy country, Burundi, scored a 2.905.  That means Americans are not exactly unhappy, but there's room for improvement. Here's what the 12 happier countries are doing that we can do, too. Broadly speaking, the report found the largest single contributor to happiness is a country's per-capita gross domestic product, which, on average, accounts for around 31 percent of the total. That's followed by social support (26 percent), healthy life expectancy (18 percent), freedom to make life choices (12 percent), generosity (8 percent), and the absence of corruption (5 percent). The U.S. mostly leaves the poor to fend for themselves. Not so in the happiest countries. Jeffrey Sachs, a co-author of the World Happiness Report On per-capita GDP, the U.S. outranks most of the countries in the top 10 (less than Norway, roughly tied with Switzerland). But it lags behind in almost every other category. When a country focuses primarily on just one aspect of wellbeing, that tends to have a harmful effect on people's broader sens...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news