Nerve Endings Firing Away

Ever since Bhutan quantified Gross National Happiness, people around the world have evinced an interest in raising their happiness levels instead of wealth levels. Of course, increasing your wealth still remains popular and one of man’s favorite activities. UK ‘analytic social psychologist’ Adrian White at University of Leichester has mapped the world map of happiness:

The more red the countries are, the more happy they seem to consider themselves [click on the map for a closer look]. As you can see, North America and the Scandanavian countries seem to be pretty chirpy; so does Australia down under. China is relatively happier than India but I guess with more economic growth, we’ll get there. Strangely autocratic or democratic rule doesn’t seem to make any difference as Saudi Arabia seems to be as happy as Spain, Mexico, Germany, and Argentina but maybe not as happy as their neighbors to the east. A little quirky observation, Ireland seems to be more content than England. Better to have not played instead of played and lost, eh? World Cup-wise I mean.Any other earth-shattering conjectures you like to add?