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Survey: Armenia and Zimbabwe are the unhappiest countries -UPDATED

Survey: Armenia and Zimbabwe are the unhappiest countries -<font color=red>UPDATED </font>

13 February 2009 09:27 (UTC +04:00)

According to the survey, Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world.
Interestingly, the Danish economy is a mix of low inflation and low unemployment with emphasis on entrepreneurship and lower taxes and these qualities combined with high marks for innovation and technological savvy lift Denmark to the top of the ranking, according to a Forbesâ€™ list of the best countries for business.
In the happiness index, Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
The United States ranks ahead of more than 80 countries, but below 15 others in happiness levels.
Out of the former USSR countries, only Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan have satifactory happiness levels while Russia is left behind.
Ninety-seven percent of respondents an exceptionally high response rate gave answers that strongly correlated with how satisfied they were with various aspects of life such as gender equality and tolerance of minorities.
Interestingly, countries whose respondents reported high levels of happiness were much likelier to be democracies than were countries that rank lower in terms of their citizensâ€™ happiness.
Three of the worldâ€™s poorer countries with long histories of repressive government Moldova, Armenia and Zimbabwe are at the bottom of the happiness list. Virtually all of the lowest ranking nations struggle with legacies of authoritarian rule and widespread poverty.
The survey, first done in 1981, has kept to two simple 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?"

	Countries (Ranked from happiest to least happy)	Happiness Ranking (Negative scores indicate that a majority of the population is unhappy/dissatisfied with life)
1	Denmark	4.24
2	Puerto-Rico	4.21
3	Columbia	4.18
4	Iceland	4.15
5	North Ireland	4.13
6	Ireland	4.12
7	Switzerland	3.96
8	Netherlands	3.77
9	Canada	3.76
10	Austria	3.68
11	Salvador	3.67
12	Malta	3.61
13	Luxemburg	3.61
14	Sweden	3.58
15	New Zealand	3.57
16	United States	3.55
17	Guatemala	3.53
18	Mexico	3.52
19	Norway	3.50
20	Belgium	3.40
21	United Kingdom	3.39
22	Australia	3.26
23	Venezuela	3.25
24	Trinidad	3.25
25	Finland	3.24
26	Saudi Arabia	3.17
27	Thailand	3.02
28	Cyprus	2.96
29	Nigeria	2.82
30	Brasilia	2.81
31	Singapore	2.72
32	Argentina	2.69
33	Andorra	2.64
34	Malaysia	2.61
35	Western Germany	2.60
36	Vietnam	2.52
37	France	2.50
38	Philippines	2.47
39	Uruguay	2.43
40	Indonesia	2.37
41	Chile	2.34
42	Dominican Republic	2.29
43	Japan	2.24
44	Spain	2.16
45	Israel	2.08
46	Italy	2.06
47	Portugal	2.01
48	Taiwan	1.83
49	Eastern Germany	1.78
50	Slovenia	1.77
51	Ghana	1.73
52	Poland	1.66
53	Czech Republic	1.66
54	China	1.64
55	Mali	1.62
56	Kyrgyzstan	1.59
57	Jordan	1.46
58	Greece	1.45
59	South Africa	1.39
60	Turkey	1.27
61	Peru	1.24
62	South Korea	1.23
63	Hong-Kong	1.16
64	Iran	1.12
65	Bangladesh	1.00
66	Bosnia	0.94
67	Croatia	0.87
68	Morocco	0.87
69	India	0.85
70	Uganda	0.69
71	Zambia	0.68
72	Algeria	0.60
73	Burkina-Faso	0.60
74	Egypt	0.52
75	Slovakia	0.41
76	Hungary	0.36
77	Montenegro	0.19
78	Tanzania	0.13
79	Azerbaijan	0.13
80	Macedonia	-0.06
81	Rwanda	-0.15
82	Pakistan	-0.30
83	Ethiopia	-0.30
84	Estonia	-0.36
85	Lithuania	-0.70
86	Latvia	-0.75
87	Romania	-0.88
88	Russia	-1.01
89	Georgia	-1.01
90	Bulgaria	-1.09
91	Iraq	-1.36
92	Albania	-1.44
93	Ukraine	-1.69
94	Belarus	-1.74
95	Moldova	-1.74
96	Armenia	-1.80
97	Zimbabwe	-1.92