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The Schmooze

Israel is 8th Happiest Country on the Globe

Want to be happier? Move to Israel.

And no, this isn’t Jewish Agency propaganda. It’s the results of a recently announced Forbes mega-study on happiness around the glob.

Gallup surveyed thousands of people in 155 countries, between 2005 and 2009, to find out how happy they were. It asked participants about overall satisfaction with their lives and how they felt the previous day. Statisticians then crunched the numbers to come up with a percentage of people thriving, struggling and suffering.

Israel ranks a remarkable eighth, with 62% of the population thriving, only 3% suffering and 35% struggling. America only ranks 14th, with 57% of the population thriving, 40% struggling and, like Israel, 3% suffering.

The five happiest countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands – are all clustered in the same, chilled out region. Israel’s high ranking sticks out in the top ten. It’s the only Middle Eastern country and the only country coping with a continuous political and religious conflict.

In Israel’s large immigrant groups, people will be pleased to know that none of them left behind happier countries to make the move. France ranks 44th, Russia 73rd, Yemen 96th, Ethiopia 108th, and Morocco 115th.

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