Abraham Lincoln Said “Folks are usually as happy as they make their minds up to be.” The Harris Poll is used to calculate Americas happiness index, it gives them a score out of 100. This score is calculated by averaging the percentages of people’s positive and negative statements about the people in their area and the worries and problems they face in that area. According to Time Magazine, American happiness levels have gone down in the past year. In 2015 the Harris Poll reported the levels at 34. In its results from summer of 2016 the levels were 31. This change is likely related to the divide between citizens during the election. How does this compare to other countries?

The World Happiness Index surveys people around the world and ranks the countries. To be as accurate as possible, survey answers are looked at with life expectancy, social support, levels of GDP, freedom, generosity, and corruption. This information is then used to see how ready countries are for humanitarian projects like ending poverty and hunger and increasing the quality of education. This year out of 157 countries, the U.S. was in 13th place. The happiest country was Denmark and the least happy was Burundi.

Business Insider, an American news website, gives the reasons why Denmark is so happy. Their GDP is in the top ten in the world and their minimum wage is around $20 an hour. Business Insider also says that there is a wide degree of social support from the community and government and people do not judge you as much there. News.com reports that Burundi is the most unhappy country because of the people’s opposition to the president and extreme police brutality; there is also much violence between tribes living there. Burundi is also a poor densely populated country. These stark differences reveal why these countries ranked where they did.