STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 13 September 2013

[xchrom]

17. Vikings have the most fun: U.N. says Danes are the happiest people on the planet

http://grist.org/living/vikings-have-the-most-fun-u-n-says-danes-are-the-happiest-people-on-the-planet/

?w=250&h=187
They don’t always look happy, but really they are.

Their days of seafaring plunder are over, but Danes are still the happiest people in the world, says the U.N. How do they do it? With sustainable development, a sane workweek, and umbrella drinks, for starters.

The news comes from a new United Nations report [PDF] attempting to measure the happiness factor of countries around the globe. The world’s people are feeling decidedly “meh,” according to the report, released Monday by the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network: “On a scale running from 0 to 10, people in over 150 countries, surveyed by Gallup over the period 2010-12, reveal a population-weighted average score of 5.1.”

But the mood in some countries is downright giddy: The U.N. calls them “happiness hot spots,” but you can just think of them as the Earth’s erogenous zones. Topping the list? Denmark, which scored a 7.693 on the happiness scale. (The U.S. pales at No. 17, but we’re a far cry happier than the notoriously violent African nation of Togo, where the people rated themselves just 2.936.)

How, you wonder, could the world’s happiest country be one with terrible weather and a regional cuisine built around pickled herring? Well, I spent a week in the kingdom this summer, and have a few theories on the matter.