Israel is the 8th Happiest Country in the World

A report released by Gallop has found that Israeli citizens are the 8^th happiest of any country in the world.  This is great fuel for aliyah, as it proves that people can move to Israel and be happy.

Israel tied for 8^th with Canada, Switzerland, and Australia.  The survey results were collected by Gallop from 2005-2009 and had tens of thousands of participants in 155 countries.

The happiest countries were all located in Scandinavia and the least happy were generally all in Africa.  This shows that economic prosperity and freedom has a lot to do with happiness.  I was also fascinated to see that the countries with the largest public services were the happiest.  Scandinavian countries are known for having the most robust public health care, retirement, maternity/paternity, and public services in the world.

The United States came in 14^th and the Palestinian Authority ranked 88^th, which is better than Israel’s neighbors Egypt and Syria, whom tied at 115^th.

So, if you live in the United States or United Kingdom (17^th) and you need a little more happiness in your life, consider moving to Israel.  I can vouch for Israel on this.  I was just there and it made me happy.

Thanks to Dan Illouz for sharing this with me.