WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday.
Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th.
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists.
It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed.
"I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study.
And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy.
"Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis.
"Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous."
Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden.
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