Top 10 happiest countries excluding USA

In the second annual World Happiness Report, members of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) combined the brainpower of experts in economics, psychology, survey analysis, national statistics, and more to determine how happiness can help assess a country's growth and how it can help countries achieve their economic and social goals.

See the list below after cut...
Top 10 happiest countries:

1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Switzerland
4. Netherlands
5. Sweden
6. Canada
7. Finland
8. Austria
9. Iceland
10. Australia

Notice how the United States didn't make the cut? The U.S. ranked a bit further down the list, at number 17, behind Israel and Mexico. Interestingly enough, there were no countries with populations greater than 50 million in the top 10.

Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo rounded out the bottom of the list as the least happy nations.
Happiness gains were seen in the Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America regions, while losses were seen in countries with economic woes (Greece, Portugal and Spain) and, most notably, in Egypt, where politial turmoil rocked the country for the past two years.

 How the Report Is Created

The World Happiness Report 2013 ranks over 150 countries using a scale of 0 to 10. Though researchers examined a variety of factors, six important variables explain 75 percent of the differences in scores. These include:

• Real GDP per capita
• Healthy life expectancy
• Having someone to count on
• Perceived freedom to make life choices
• Freedom from corruption
• Generosity

The takeaway from all of this information is that it may serve governing bodies to look into policies that improve their country's happiness. The happier your constituents are, the longer they live, the more productive they are, and the more likely they are to be active, informed citizens.Though this report can make it clear which countries are happier, its up to the leaders to take steps to improve upon the well-being of their people.