Happiness

In this period of summer vacations it is quite understandable to engage in the business of happiness. Some days ago the prestigious Forbes.com published the result of a Gallup poll involving thousands of respondents in each of the 170 countries concerned. People were asked about how they had felt the previous days. Based on the answers, and in particular the percentage of individuals who were "thriving", Forbes has published the ranking of the World's Happiest Countries.

I'd say there are no major surprises in the first five places, occupied by Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands in this order. Of course one might say that these are four Nordic countries plus one. Others (like me) could say that there are four EU countries - plus one. Both observations might be right to some extent, should we suppose (just for a sunny summer moment) that happiness can be measured.