Over the past ten years, there has been an explosion in studies on human happiness. Dozens of books and thousands of technical articles have shown that happiness can be measured accurately with national surveys. Research has sought the causes of happiness and many scholars have asked how countries can enact policies that improve the happiness of their citizens.
A number of these studies asked which countries are the happiest. Here, there is little consensus. One famous survey from the University of Leicester in England finds that the Danes are the happiest, with Spain coming in at number 46 and the United States at 23. The highly respected International Social Survey Programme puts Mexico at the top, with Spain far down the list and the United States significantly above Denmark. The World Values Survey finds New Zealanders the happiest surveyed and Spaniards 13th, just three slots below the United States.
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