Australia is the 3rd happiest place on earth! Can you guess who's 1st and 2nd?

I tend to agree with you on this one Celantih and it's not a mindset limited to the USA either. Survival of the fittest has taken on a materialistic form in many societies these days and the byproduct of this is a far more stressful world! The true essence of why we exist and what we must do to survive has been lost along the way and we're practically killing ourselves trying to outdo one another and even outdo ourselves! Rejoicing in the little things is so important, yes. If we really think long and hard about it, the things that make us the most happy in life rarely cost much at all!

You actually make PERFECT sense for once Diddly! What the mind believes, we achieve! A laid back mindset and a knack for not becoming too stressed with life and what it throws at us wouldn't be such a bad place to be at all I don't reckon!

I'd love to be living in an island culture myself, so tehre'll be no argument from me here! A holiday would be great too, but I seem to have forgotten what one of those even is? lol.

Bzzzz, Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Awesome, bro.. Tell me about it. I don't know what holiday means to me too.. busy bees we are!

Gandhiji! People are too concerned with actually surviving to be able to find the time to dig deeper within to address things like this. It's a sad reality I'm afraid. If only they could recognise that seeking a mindset and way of life along these lines isn't taking away from the here and now at all; it's an investment for tomorrow that will pay dividends immediately! We're all guilty of getting caught up in the day-to-day doldrums though and it's not easy to break cycles that can become as natural as breathing. The only way to break an old cycle is to create a new one, but again, our negative habits reign supreme and we tend to lose sight of the need for things like this. It's not easy!

Heya pratyush. I'd have to agree with you on this one! After a few years of living in a number of countries with very large population concentrations, the thought of being somewhere with far less people is quite satisfying! Apparently Vanuatu was number 1 on this list in 2008 and this would fit in with your comments very well because they have a small population and an arguably utopian island lifestyle! Sounds good to me, I must say. Karma would play a part too I'm certain of that. The problem being however, that many people wouldn't agree with this at all and won't consider karma when living their lives.

People should take karma a bit seriously. With all the evil everywhere, life has just become very hard. People get angry for no reason at all. There's quarreling, pushing, fighting, troubling, abusing for no or negligible reason at all. The world would really be a better place if people understand "as you sow so shall you reap" once again. But alas ! An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind..

Hey Friends, Lets not start a fight all over again. We all know that some Australians are sick minded and they have no moral values. These people are spoiling the name of Australians world wide and its a shame. I live in Mumbai and Gateway of India is a place where such incidents are common. Thus i have no hesitation to accept that, Yes some Indians are ignorant. They get excited when they c a foreigner and do things which is shameful to the entire nation. Lets not judge an entire nation by just few incidents. We all know that good and bad people exists everywhere. Lets make mylot a place where we all are same, irrespective of our nationality, race, religion and skin color. Cheers, Tutul

Thank you tutul. And for the record, I'm not someone that's looking to start any fighting whatsoever because this serves no purpose at all. I will however defend my country and it's people against misinformed generalisations that have been based on the actions of a few. I'm a well travelled individual that has lived and worked in a number of different countries to date and India is one of them. Scumbags exist in all places and it is their actions as misguided and negative people that defines them. To tag an entire nationality or country because of these idiots is just not on. I appreciate your level head in this situation, I must say.

Hi agrim. This survey was taken by the New Economics Foundation who appear to come across as quite credible actually. The problem here though is that I have no idea what questions were asked? Apparently they took into account lifestyle, average life expectancy, environmental status and cost of living etc among other criteria as well that I'm yet to determine. I also wish to make reference yet again to the situation in Australia. I am an Australian who has also lived and worked in India. Australians as a whole are NOT racists, nor are they so pedantic to get jealous of someone having flashy electronics for God's sake! These were isolated attacks by random idiots hell bent on opportunism. It is NOT a reflection of all Australian people, or the country in general. The criminal hooligans who acted in this manner must be punished severely and made an example of. It really upsets me to keep reading generic comments about Australia and Australians because they're not fair statements at all. When I lived in Mumbai, a foreign woman was sexually assaulted at the Gateway of India by a group of Indian men. So shall I now assume that all Indians are perverts? Of course not!

Thank you for taking the time to understand my point of view when it comes to the recent attacks in Australia. I agree with what you're saying about materialistic desires and people never seeming to be happy with what they have as well. Mindsets are most definitely one of the most important factors in determining a person's happoiness and how they live. How can one be happy if they're never satisfied? Contemplation can lead to understanding, to acceptance and to peaceful outcomes and knowledge. Envy and greed result in the opposite! I unfortunately still haven't found a definitive list of all countries surveyed yet, but I can assure you that New Zealand is a beautiful country with striking scenery, a mild climate and a small population of mostly friendly people. I would think that many new Zealanders would be quite happy and their quality of life would generally be very good too. You're very lucky to be going there and I wish you all the best with your studies.

I would also appreciate it if you could go back and read my replies to your comments on the first page of this discussion. You owe me an apology.

Heya maximax! The frustrating thing about all of this is that the article on the link orignally stated Australia was 3rd and then they retracted that story and placed new information! I wasn't happy to have my discussion's main statement suddenly become inaccurate that's for sure. Costa Rica is still number 1, but Australia is now WAY down the list. Oh well! lol. To me it'll always be number 1 anyways. I wish I knew exactly what questions they asked everyone to come up with these rankings because it would shed a lot of light on the whole situation if they did reveal them. Singapore's great by the way, but the humidity!

I'm an Aussie too, but a long, long way from home. What sucks here is that the journalists who provided the article saying Australia was 3rd, have now retracted that story and said we're 102nd! And to make it even MORE confusing, there are still articles online saying we're 3rd and other articles saying we're not. I reckon we just accept that Australia's number 1 and leave it at that! I'd love to visit Costa Rica one day too.

No way! Not the frivolous, carefree and hedonistic Brits??? What IS the world comong too Mr Pike? All that fine weather too.....

It's quite ironic that he ended up in a coffin seeing as he was such a strong supporter of "It's a small world after all"

I'm packing my bags as we speak.....

The Foundation that conducted the survey DOES seem credible and they've been doing this for a few years now. What I don't know though is what questions were asked. If I did know this, I might understand the rankings of so many Latin Americsn countries in the top 10. Things over there may just be more ideal than we realise!

I've found people to be quite funny when it comes to patriotism actually. When they're on home soil, they'll whinge like crazy, but put them in another country and they're proud as punch about where they're from and their nation in general! This isn't always the case of course, but it's a common trait!

You're welcome airakumar, I just wish I had more information like the questions asked and the entire list. Second place actually went to the DOminican Republic and there were no European nations in the top 10 at all! I don't know the specific questions asked, but from what I DO know, they were centred around lifestyle, standards of living and also took into consideration costs of living and environmental conditions. Apparently some 85% of Costa Ricans spoke favourably of their country too, which is great for Costa Rica!

Heya tutul. I unfortunately haven't been able to get hold of the entire list, so I'm not sure where Denmark is listed. We're talking 143 countries here, so India is definitely in there too. I'm still looking for the full outline and hopefully I'll find it soon and can come back and share it. As an Australian, I wish to point out again that these recent attacks on studenrs are NOT a representation of the country or it's people as a whole, but are isolated circumstances that WILL be dealt with in a proper manner. Unfortunately violence exists everywhere and it's the atrocious actions of a few that tarnish the reputation of many other good people. I lived in India for a little over a year and witnessed vioence there too I'm afraid, but these things I experienced are certainly not blanket criteria I'd use to label the entire country! I wish you luck in getting that Costa Rican vacation too. I wouldn't mind one myself! lol.

Having a strong faith can certainly help a person deal more effectively with pretty much ANY environment, no question. I'm not aware of all tyhe criteria used in this survey, but I think the ones you've mentioned here would've formed part of them for sure. The ennvironmental standing of each country was taken into consideration too, this I DO know.

They only went up to 143 countries with this one! I keep finding all these different lists and the top 10 change every time! I think it's pretty hard to get a job anywhere at the moment I'm afraid, so the UK's not alone on that front. Latin America is one region that I haven't been to before either, but it seems like a decent place to go!

I've been trying to find a definitive list, but there appear to be many versions! European countries don't show up in in the Top 10 of any of them though. I recall reading comments in the past about Switzerland being a wonderful country on many levels and from memory they mentioned Finland or Sweden too? According to this release, it's Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic that are the number 1 and 2 happiest countries, but I have no idea what the questions in the survey are! If I find a current list, I'll check for Lithuania too.