The World’s Happiest Countries Ranking 2016

The world’s top happiest country is Denmark according to the UN’s World Happiness Report 2016 Update. The other countries in the top five list are Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland in that order. Canada is the 6th most happiest country. The U.S. ranks 13th just above Costa Rica.

It is not surprising that the Scandinavian countries top the ranking as they usually come on the top of such lists.

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Worlds Top happy countries 2016

Source: World Happiness Report, UN

Incidentally fellow blogger Barry posted the following chart on government spending on social assistance in OECD countries. Most of the Scandinavian countries appear on the top of this chart.

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Government Spending on Social Programs

Source: Fivethirtyeight 

Hat Tip: The big Picture

The relationship between high government spending on social programs and happiness is worth a deeper study.

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