Happy Maltese

According to The World Database of Happiness compiled at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Maltese people are leading the worldwide happiness barometer. Herman Grech of the Times spoke to the author, Dutch professor Ruut Veenhoven:

For the past 20 years, Prof. Veenhoven, 62, the world's only professor of social conditions for human happiness, has been collecting every scrap of reliable research from around the globe relating to life satisfaction. The research has spawned The World Database of Happiness, a collection of more than 8,000 findings from 120 countries.

Divided into two parts, it rates the happiness of 90 nations on a scale of 0 to 10 based on 2,498 general population surveys carried out between 1946 and 2004. The latest figures have taken into consideration the recent Eurobarometer surveys. However, this database is not limited to findings that reached authorised publications - "grey" reports and mere datafiles are included as well. The second part contains 8,496 findings of the correlation between happiness and factors as diverse as marriage, weight and intelligence.

Contacted by The Times, Prof. Veenhoven said there were several reasons why the Maltese topped the polls on the happy factor. Residents of small countries traditionally had more peace of mind, possibly because democracies were stronger, he said. "I know about the political turbulence in Malta but, still, it doesn't result in some overly decisive issue which affects people's happiness. Malta has a lot of freedom, it's part of the Western world and this is an important factor," he said.