Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

We’re a lot happier as a nation than I was otherwise led to believe. Um, go us?

We’re No. 6! That’s according to new data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , which on Tuesday released results of a survey measuring quality of life in 36 industrialized nations.

For the last three years, the Paris-based outfit has weighed 11 criteria, including housing, income, jobs, environment, safety and work-life balance. For the third year in a row, Australia was the big winner, thanks in large part to an economy that managed to avoid the global recession of the last decade.

The U.S. hobbled across the finish line in sixth place, behind Sweden, Canada, Norway and Switzerland, which ranked second through fifth, respectively.

more via Daum: Americans’ happiness score – latimes.com.

But seriously (ha ha), I feel like happiness scoring, as subjective as it is, is a good way of measuring our overall health and well being. It also indicates we’re doing okay and getting time in our lives for all the important stuff like family and time to recreate. I like Bhutan’s use of grass national happiness as a major marker for the nation’s well-being (lovely country, BTW, just be prepared for an exciting landing).

Meghan Daum: Americans’ happiness score (pantagraph.com)
Why Australia is the happiest developed nation (smartplanet.com)

Turns out Americans aren’t so happy right now; we didn’t even make it into the top ten. In fact, eight of the top ten happiest nations are in Europe.

There is more to happiness than raw economic growth. What happens when you measure countries by employment, health care, and life satisfaction? The United States and Europe run in opposite directions.

#1: Denmark

Employment Score: 5th
Self-Reported Health:15th
Employees Working Long Hours: 3rd
Disposable Income:18th
Educational Attainment: 18th
Life Expectancy: 25th

I was surprised to see that Danes worked some of the longest hours of all the nations polled. They also didn’t score super high on life expectancy or disposable income.

#2, Canada, had a seemingly more balanced ranking, ranking tenth in long hours worked and 2nd for self-reported health. Norway at #3 also had pretty good scores all around.

Hmm, maybe it’s the cold weather?

Check out the whole list at The Happiest Countries in the World – Bruce Stokes – Business – The Atlantic.