International Day of Happiness: Finland named world's happiest country... and Brits are cheering up

Britons are becoming increasingly happy after an annual UN survey placed the UK as 15^th in the 156-country ranking.

The seventh annual World Happiness Report, conducted between 2016 and 2018, showed Britain climbing the charts by four places since last year.

Scandinavian countries were found to be the happiest, with Finland, Denmark and Norway in the top three.

On the other hand, South Sudan and Burundi were the least happy out of the 156 countries.

Respondents to the survey, published by the London-based Action for Happiness charity, placed the status of their lives on a 0 to 10 scale.

Top 15 happiest nations in the world

1. Finland

2. Denmark

3. Norway

4. Iceland

5. Netherlands

6. Switzerland

7. Sweden

8. New Zealand

9. Canada

10. Austria

11. Australia

12. Costa Rica

13. Israel

14. Luxembourg

15. United Kingdom

The nations at the bottom of the list are usually affected by economic, political and social turmoil.

Laurie Santos, professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University told the BBC: “Science has proved that being happy requires a conscious effort.

“It’s not easy, it takes time.”

“Being happy isn’t something that just happens. You’ve got to practice to be better at it,” she said.

Her class called Psychology and the Good Life is the most popular in the 317 year history of the US Ivey league college.

Professor Santos recommends writing a gratitude list, eight hours sleep, meditation, quality time with friends and family, and less social media.

She said: “We've seen that the students who regularly do this exercise actually tend to be happier.

"It might seem silly, but we know that sleeping more and better reduces your chances of suffering from depression and improves your positive attitude,” she added.

"We often associate wealth with how much money we have but research shows that wealth is more closely tied to how much time we have."