A UN survey that measures the mean happiness level of people around the world has placed the U.S. in 13th position out of 156 countries. The U.S. scored 7.10 out of 10. The happiest place in the world tuns out to be Denmark (7.52) and the least happiest is the African nation of Burundi (2.91). Seven European nations are in the top 10 joined by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand while Syria, Togo, and Afghanistan join Burundi in the bottom four. What's interesting to me about the survey is that it focuses attention on happiness and subjective wellbeing as key measures of human development rather than just economic growth. In fact, when you look at the variables that explain the differences between the happiest and the least happy nations, it turns out to be things like social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceptions of corruption. I wonder how government policies might change if we adopted gross national happiness instead of gross domestic product as our main development indicator?