Canada’s summers may be mild and its winters cold, but its people are still happier than 90 per cent of rest of the world.
Canada tied 10 other countries for 15th on a list of the world’s happiest populations, putting it ahead of most European nations. The Great White North trails several of its South American neighbours on the internationally-ranked list, but it finished dead even with the United States and several Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway.
The website Gallup polled 1,000 residents from 143 countries worldwide to produce the list, which ranks each nation by the percentage of positive answers its citizens provided to a series of questions about sleep, respect, laughter, education and happiness.
Paraguay dominated the list with 89 per cent positive responses, followed by a three-way tie between Ecuador, Colombia and Guatemala at 84 per cent. Several Central and South American countries fill out the top 10 with scores in the low eighties, while Canada tied 10 other countries at 79 per cent.
Canada’s neighbours on the list included its neighbour to the south and a good mix of countries from different parts of the world. The United States, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Argentina, Bhutan, Chile, Dominican Republic and Rwanda all racked up scores of 79 per cent.
War-torn, poor and bitterly-divided countries filled out the bottom of the list, with Sudan placing last at 47 per cent. Tunisia was next-lowest at 52 per cent, followed by a tie between Bangladesh, Serbia and Turkey.
The list found an obvious discrepancy between national wealth and individual happiness, with poorer countries like Guatemala far outranking wealthy nations like the United Kingdom.
