US Ranked 17th in the latest World Happiness Report by UN

The latest edition of the World Happiness Report has listed the United States as the 17^th happiest country. The report was released Monday by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Solutions Network and was based on data from 156 countries.

Northern Europe seems to be the land of smiling people as the report ranked five countries of this region; Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden as the happiest countries. At the bottom of the list were African countries; Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo.

This is the second annual report on happiness and is authored by experts in economics, psychology, survey analysis, and national statistics and looks at how the well-being of people can be used to assess the progress of a nation.

"There is now a rising worldwide demand that policy be more closely aligned with what really matters to people as they themselves characterize their well-being," said Professor Jeffery Sachs in a news release. "More and more world leaders are talking about the importance of well-being as a guide for their nations and the world. The World Happiness Report 2013 offers rich evidence that the systematic measurement and analysis of happiness can teach us a lot about ways to improve the world's well-being and sustainable development."

The good news is that the world is smiling now more than ever before; the latest report shows an increase in happiness ratings of many Latin American and Sub- Saharan countries when compared with the data of the previous report. Countries hit by economic or political turmoil like Greece, Portugal and Egypt had lower happiness ratings in the present report when compared to the previous year.

There are six key factors that explain variation in happiness levels between countries. These factors include economic stability, healthy life expectancy, social support, low corruption and generosity.

Although, the U.S. fell from 11^th to 17^th place this year, it outdid United Kingdom (22nd), France (25^th) and Japan (43^rd). Canada at 6^th rank, Costa Rica at 12^th and Mexico at 6^th are few of the countries that beat Americans in happiness scores.

Falling healthy life expectancy along with perceived "inability to make choices" are among the factors that lowered happiness scores of America, Sachs told USA Today in an email.