Happiness is...

Apparently living in Norway. But it's so cold there! It's also freezing in Denmark and Finland, #'s 2 and 3. I guess that tells you something, huh. Too cold to go out in the winter? Happier at home. Course that's just a guess from beside my fireplace and having never been to any of those Nordic countries.

The World's Happiest Countries, taken from the Forbes article here.

In Nepal, for example, inflation is 11%, unemployment 46%. Yet a surprisingly high 50% of the people say they are satisfied with their standard of living and 81% have confidence in their banks. Could be they're scared of voicing their true opinion in a shaky democracy, or maybe the Nepalese are just endemically happier people. Legatum adjusts for this, adding a variable called "ability to express political opinion without fear."

According to the article, many small, sparsly populated countries make the top 10. So PEOPLE make one less happy? I may be reading too much into that.... The USA dosn't make the top 10--we're #14. Well, no we kind of do: in populations over 150 million, the USA is #10

Which begs the question, what does happiness mean to you?