Three years ago, if you had asked a person from Denmark the secret to happiness, you probably would have gotten back a blank stare. The same question today, however, likely would be answered with knowing laughter and any one of several explanations.

Being recognized as the world’s happiest people simply takes some getting used to.

Since 2006, Denmark, a largely homogenous country of 5 million people on Europe’s stormy northern coast, has been anointed the happiest place on earth by two very different surveys. The studies’ findings have upended dated international perceptions of Denmark as a quaint but chilly dairy exporter with a high suicide rate, recasting the country instead as a model of social harmony that is thriving in an era of globalization.

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That’s it.  I’m moving to Denmark.

The article also says, “Denmark’s approach relies on high taxes and aggressive redistribution of wealth—anathema to many free-market Americans—which results in a broad range of social services like health care, retirement pensions, and quality public schools.”  I fully support the free market and individual responsibility for one’s success, but I also sometimes think that “aggressive redistribution of wealth” would be a good thing even if all it did was guarantee that we had better public schools.  Some of our nation’s public schools are in positively shameful conditions.  Evidence suggests that access to a good education creates happier people with an overall better quality of life.  I know I’d be happier knowing that every child in American had access to a clean, structurally sound school building, with decent teachers and an effective curriculum.   How about you?

-MJ

The UAE may offer a cosmopolitan lifestyle, great job opportunities and supply us with endless credit cards that enable us to buy fancy cars and designer gear – but even still, out of the Persian Gulf states, the Emirates came last in recent survey rating happiness. Maktoob Research, a regional online survey group found that the happiest people in the region live, not here, but in Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Having studied 7,434 residents of diverse nationalities across 11 countries, the study reveals that Oman has the highest percentage of happy people, followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Next comes the UAE, followed by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and last on the list, troubled Lebanon.

[...] Some may be surprised to hear that a rigidly conservative and totalitarian society like Saudi Arabia topped the charts in terms of happiness. Ruba Ayat, is a 23-year-old from Lebanon, who has lived 18 years in Dubai, certainly was. “I am very shocked that Saudi Arabia was found to have the happiest people. I would have said people in the UAE were happiest, as we have the social life. I am incredibly happy here. It’s a home away form home,” says Ruba.

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People looking for jobs that bring satisfaction and happiness should concentrate on professions that focus primarily on serving other people, according to a new report from the University of Chicago, which found clergy to be the happiest and most satisfied of American workers.

“The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching, and protecting others and creative pursuits,” said Tom W. Smith, Director of the General Social Survey (GSS) at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The survey is the most comprehensive of its kind to explore satisfaction and happiness among American workers. The GSS asks a large variety of questions of a representative sample of Americans in face-to-face interviews. In the 1988 to 2006 GSS surveys, interviewers asked people how satisfied they were with their jobs. The interviewers also asked them about their general level of happiness and Smith correlated those general happiness findings with the jobs people held. People’s feelings about their work usually have a significant impact on their happiness, he said.

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