Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Rating

The 2013 "World Happiness Report", released by Columbia University's Earth Institute, measures people's happiness in 156 countries according to a set of various criteria, including individual health, work safety, stable families, political freedoms, corruption, economic well-being.

Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden are the world's happiest countries.

Lithuania is the happiest Baltic nation, despite having tumbled eleven places down to the 71st, whereas Estonia has kept its 72nd ranking.

The Report also shows that the people in Russia and Belarus are happier than in Latvia; these countries are ranked 68th and 66th, respectively.

Rwanda, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Benin and Togo are the least satisfied with their lives, the Report indicates.

The global survey was conducted between 2010 and 2012, it says that while "the world has become a slightly happier and more generous place over the past five years," economic and political upheavals have resulted in greatly reduced levels of well-being for some nations, the report said.

Rankings for Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain fell dramatically because of the impact of the eurozone crisis, while Egypt, Myanmar and Saudi Arabia registered large falls in the wake of recent political and civil turmoil.

Angola, Zimbabwe and Albania experienced the largest increases across all the countries surveyed.

Governments seeking to improve the happiness of their populations should spend a higher proportion of their health budgets on mental illness, which is the single biggest "determinant of misery" in countries assessed, the study authors said.

"People can be unhappy for many reasons - from poverty to unemployment to family breakdown to physical illness," the report said. "But in any particular society, chronic mental illness is a highly influential cause of misery. If we want a happier world, we need a completely new deal on mental health," says the report.